9  5  C o(.u  /t>  A* a.    6t 


PAST  AND  PRESENT 


PAST  AND  PRESENT 

A 

COLLECTION  OF  JEWISH 

ESSAYS 

BY 
ISRAEL    FRIEDLAENDER 


Cincinnati 

ARK  PUBLISHING  CO. 

1919 


COPYRIGHT  1919 

BY 

ARK  PUBLISHING  CO. 


ftLF  (-/       (g 


To 

Herbert  Bentwich,  Esq., 

A  Faithful  Lover  of  Zion  and  a  Valiant 

Champion  of  Zion's  Ideals, 

This  Volume 

is 

Affectionately  Dedicated 


PREFACE 

The  collection  of  essays  presented  herewith  to  the 
public  consists  of  a  number  of  articles  and  addresses 
which  I  have  written  or  delivered  during  the  last 
twenty  years — since  1899  when,  as  a  young  student, 
I  entered  literary  and  public  life.  They  are  intended 
for  the  general  reader,  although  it  is  hoped  that  they 
may  not  prove  altogether  valueless  to  the  specialist. 

However,  the  volume  represents  not  only  a  collec- 
tion but  also  a  selection.  I  have  rigidly  excluded 
everything  that  I  thought  was  of  merely  passing 
interest  at  the  time  it  was  written,  or  that  I  did  not 
consider  sufficiently  popular,  either  in  subject-matter 
or  in  form  of  presentation,  to  appeal  to  the  intelligent 
layman.  In  one  or  two  instances  I  found  myself 
compelled  to  substantiate  my  theses  by  a  few  technical 
references.  I  have  put  these  references  in  small  type, 
in  the  hope  that  they  will  not  obtrude  themselves 
upon  the  reader,  and,  like  the  proverbial  good  chil- 
dren, will  be  seen  and  not  heard. 

Three  of  the  essays  ("The  Hebrew  Language," 
"The  Messianic  Idea  in  Islam,"  and  "Maimonides  as 
a  Master  of  Style")  were  originally  written  in  German 
and  translated  by  the  author  for  the  present  volume. 

Two  of  the  essays  ("Were  Our  Ancestors  Capable 
of  Self-Government?"  and  "A  New  Specimen  of 
Modern  Biblical  Exegesis")  are  polemical  in  character. 
The  former  is  a  rejoinder  to  an  article  attacking  Zion- 
ism on  the  basis  of  alleged  historical  facts;  the  latter 


viii  PREFACE 

is  a  review  of  a  bulky  commentary  which  represents 
the  most  radical  type  of  modern  Biblical  criticism. 
It  is  needless  for  me  to  say  that,  in  spite  of  their 
polemical  tone,  the  essays  are  free  from  all  personal 
animosity;  as  a  matter  of  fact,  neither  of  the  authors 
against  whom  they  were  directed  were  personally 
known  to  me  at  the  time  of  writing.  Nevertheless, 
I  felt  considerable  hesitation  before  embodying  these 
essays  in  this  volume.  But  the  importance  and 
timeliness  of  the  issues  discussed  in  them  made  me 
ultimately  decide  on  their  inclusion.  In  republishing 
these  two  essays  here  I  have  omitted  in  one  of  them  the 
name  of  the  writer  whose  arguments  I  endeavored  to 
refute;  in  the  case  of  the  other  essay  it  was  unfortun- 
ately impossible  for  me  to  do  so,  without  destroying 
its  entire  literary  structure,  but  the  unbiased  reader 
will  find  that  the  tone,  though  sharply  polemical,  is 
free  from  personal  acrimony. 

All  the  essays  collected  in  the  present  volume,  with 
the  exception  of  two  ("The  International  Zionist 
Congress,"  and  "Palestine  and  the  World  War"), 
which  are  printed  here  for  the  first  time,  originally 
appeared  in  various  periodical  publications,  and  are 
reproduced  here  with  the  permission  of  the  editors. 

The  essays  have  been  carefully  revised  for  the 
present  edition,  though  the  revision  has  been  limited 
to  language  and  style.  I  did  not  consider  myself  at 
liberty  to  change  the  content.  Where  such  changes 
became  unavoidable,  they  were  marked  in  the  foot- 
notes and  placed  in  square  brackets.  It  was  a  source 
of  gratification  to  me  to  find  that  the  views  expressed 
in   my  earliest  essays,  nearly  two  decades  ago,  are 


PREFACE  ix 

substantially  the  same  which  are  advocated  in  my 
latest  articles. 

I  have  entitled  this  volume  "Past  and  Present" 
in  order  to  indicate  the  two-fold  character  of  its 
subject-matter,  dealing  as  it  does  with  various  phases 
of  the  Jewish  past,  on  the  one  hand,  and  with  numer- 
ous problems  of  the  Jewish  present,  on  the  other. 
At  the  same  time  the  title  is  intended  to  convey  the 
fundamental  tendency  of  these  essays,  viz.,  to  interpret 
the  events  of  the  past  in  the  light  of  the  present,  and 
the  problems  of  the  present  in  the  light  of  the  past. 
I  have  written  neither  as  an  archeologist,  with  his 
eye  riveted  on  the  past,  nor  as  a  journalist,  with  his 
horizon  limited  to  the  present,  but  rather  as  an 
historian — in  that  sense  in  which  the  ancient  Romans 
called  history  Magistra  Vitae,  "The  Teacher  of  Life." 
Nowhere  is  this  historical  method  of  approach  more 
applicable  and,  indeed,  more  imperative  than  it  is  in 
the  case  of  the  Jews,  in  whose  life  the  past  and  the 
present  are  inextricably  bound  up  with  one  another. 

While  the  diversity  of  subjects  treated  in  this 
volume  is  undoubtedly  due — as  it  is  in  every  collection 
of  essays — to  the  personal  equation  of  the  author, 
representing  the  range  of  his  literary  and  public 
interests,  yet  I  venture  to  claim  that  the  thoughtful 
reader  will  be  able  to  detect  the  common  bond  which 
links  all  the  essays  together  and  transforms  the 
apparently  heterogeneous  mass  of  material  into  one 
homogeneous  whole.  The  volume  is  based  upon  the 
fundamental  conception  of  Judaism  as  a  living 
organism,  which  is  one  and  indivisible  at  all  times 
and    in    all    climes;    changing    and    yet    unchanged; 


x  PREFACE 

harking  back  to  a  great  past  and  struggling,  in  the 
midst  of  a  harassing  present,  towards  a  glorious 
future.  That  conception  views  Israel  as  a  com- 
munity in  which  the  religious  and  racial  element  is 
inseparably  intertwined  with  one  another,  in  which 
the  universal  ideals  and  the  national  aspirations  form 
a  harmonious  combination — a  combination  which  can 
be  realized  only  through  the  untrammeled  and  un- 
hindered development  of  the  Jewish  genius  on  a 
Jewish  soil.  It  is  essentially  the  ancient  Messianic 
tenet  of  Judaism,  which  looks  forward  to  the  restora- 
tion of  Israel  as  part  of  the  restoration  of  the  entire 
human  race.  It  is,  therefore,  natural  that  Zionism, 
which  is  the  modern  successor  of  Messianism,  should 
occupy  a  conspicuous  place  in  this  collection.  The 
first  essays  in  this  volume  deal  with  the  Zionist  ideal 
as  formulated  and  preached  by  the  prophets  of 
Israel,  and  the  last  essays  treat  of  the  same  ideal  in 
its  modern  manifestations. 

But  while  believing  in  Zionism  as  the  ultimate 
consummation  of  Israel's  hope,  and  his  only  safe- 
guard against  absorption  in  the  whirlpool  of  humanity, 
the  writer  does  not  belong  to  those  who  champion 
"the  denial  of  the  Golus"  and  are  willing  to  neglect 
or  to  sacrifice  the  bulk  of  the  Jewish  people  outside 
of  Palestine  for  the  sake  of  a  small  minority  who  are 
to  form  the  Jewish  nucleus  in  Palestine.  Basing  his 
deductions  upon  acknowledged  historical  facts,  he  is 
convinced  that,  given  the  unifying  and  inspiring  in- 
fluence of  a  Jewish  center  in  our  ancient  homeland, 
Jewish  life  in  the  Diaspora  may  be  so  shaped  as  to 
harmonize  both  with  the  age-long  traditions  of  our 


PREFACE  xi 

people  and  with  the  life  of  the  nations  in  whose 
midst  we  dwell.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  a  number 
of  essays  have  been  included  which  are  dedicated  to 
the  Jewish-Arabic  period,  for  during  that  period 
Judaism  and  Islam  exercised  a  profound  influence  on 
each  other,  and  Jewish  culture,  while  adapting  itself 
successfully  to  the  environment,  was  yet  able  to 
remain  genuinely  and  distinctively  Jewish. 

The  author,  moreover,  thoroughly  shares  the  view, 
which  is  held  and  has  frequently  been  expressed  by 
many  thinking  Jews  of  Europe,  that  America  is 
destined  to  become  in  the  near  future  the  leading 
Jewish  center  of  the  Diaspora,  and  that  it  is  the  duty 
of  American  Jewry  to  live  up  to  the  great  obligation 
placed  upon  it  by  history.  Hence,  a  number  of 
essays  are  devoted  to  a  discussion  of  Jewish  problems 
in  our  own  country.  Zionism  plus  Diaspora,  Palestine 
plus  America — these  formulas  express  in  a  nutshell 
the  leading  thoughts  of  the  present  volume. 

A  considerable  number  of  essays  embodied  in  this 
collection  were  originally  public  addresses  delivered 
on  various  occasions.  Some  of  them  were  reduced 
to  writing  after  their  delivery,  and,  therefore,  cannot 
claim  to  be  a  faithful  reproduction  of  the  original 
public  utterances.  It  is  in  view  of  this  character  of  the 
volume  that  I  venture  to  repeat  at  the  entrance  to  this 
publication  the  plea,  made  in  one  of  these  addresses 
("The  Function  of  Jewish  Learning  in  America"), 
in  favor  of  the  establishment  of  a  proper  and 
responsible  agency  for  the  public  discussion  of  Jewish 
problems.  Although  this  country  affords  a  much 
wider  scope  and  attaches  much  greater  significance 


xii  PREFACE 

to  the  platform  in  public  life  than  is  customary  in 
Europe,  we  have  as  yet  failed  to  create  a  medium  of 
expression  for  public  opinion,  such  as  is  to  be  found 
in  practically  all  European  centers  of  Jewry.  In 
Russia  there  existed  as  far  back  as  1908  a  Jewish 
Literary  Society  which  maintained  one  hundred  and 
twenty  branches  throughout  that  huge  empire;  in 
Germany  there  existed,  and  probably  still  exists,  a 
vast  net-work  of  Societies  for  Jewish  History  and 
Literature,  which  are  centralized  in  a  common 
"League";  and  in  England  there  is  similarly  to  be 
found  a  Union  of  Jewish  Literary  Societies.  If  it 
be  our  desire  to  establish  the  Jewish  platform  in 
America  on  a  proper  basis,  so  that  it  may  combine 
dignity  with  popularity,  and  an  enlightened  interest 
in  the  past  with  a  practical  insight  into  the  present, 
it  is  absolutely  essential  that  we  create  here  a  similar 
organization  which  will  enable  Jewish  men  of  letters 
as  well  as  Jewish  men  of  affairs  to  discuss  the  problems 
of  Jewish  life  and  history  on  a  high  plane,  and  will 
give  stability  and  permanency  to  the  numerous  public 
utterances  regarding  Jews  and  Judaism,  which  at 
present  are  entirely  haphazard,  and  in  most  cases 
carry  no  weight  whatsoever.  The  coming  era  of 
reconstruction,  which  is  bound  to  affect  American 
Jewry  as  it  will  the  rest  of  humanity,  ought  to  be 
particularly  favorable  to  the  realization  of  this  plan, 
as  of  many  other  schemes,  looking  to  the  development 
and  betterment  of  American  Israel. 

Israel  Friedlaender 
New  York,  February  28th,  1919. 


CONTENTS 

I     The  Political  Ideal  of  the  Prophets 1 

II     Nationalism  and  Assimilation  in  Bible  Times 35 

III  Were  Our  Ancestors  Capable  of  Self-Government?.   39 

IV  God's  Promise  to  Abraham 51 

V     Hezekiah's  Great  Passover 59 

VI     The  Prophet  Jeremiah 67 

VII     The  Hebrew  Language 95 

VIII     A  New  Specimen  of  Modern  Biblical  Exegesis 113 

IX     The  Messianic  Idea  in  Islam 139 

X     Moses  Maimonides 159 

XI     Maimonides  as  an  Exegete 193 

XII     Maimonides  as  a  Master  of  Style 217 

XIII  The  Problem  of  Polish  Jewry 229 

XIV  The  Present  Jewish  Outlook  in  Russia 241 

XV     The  Problem  of  Judaism  in  America 253 

XVI     The  Problem  of  Jewish  Education  in  America 279 

XVII     The  Function  of  Jewish  Learning  in  America 309 

XVIII     The  Present  Crisis  in  American  Jewry 331 

XIX     The  Americanization  of  the  Jewish  Immigrant 353 

XX     Dubnow's  Theory  of  Jewish  Nationalism 371 

XXI     Ahad  Ha'am 399 

XXII     Some  Ahad  Ha'am  Publications 423 

XXIII  Race  and  Religion 431 

XXIV  Zionism  and  Religious  Judaism 445 

XXV     The  International  Zionist  Congress 451 

XXVI     Palestine  and  the  Diaspora 469 

XXVII     Palestine  and  the  World  War 479 


ERRATA 

Page 

Line 

Printed 

Read 

8 

17 

people 

peoples 

10 

21 

politics 

polities 

29 

Footnote  2 

P- 

p.  39  et  seq. 

31 

5 

the  former 

the  former" 

33 

16 

put  to  test 

put  to  the  test 

52 

6 

acquired,  appre- 

appreciated when 

ciated  when 

acquired 

65 

25 

the  Lord  God 

the  Lord,  the  God 

68 

3 

As  soon  as  is 

As  soon  as  it 

96 

14 

monument 

monuments 

97 

Footnote  1 

Amara 

Amarna 

98 

21 

stamps,  the 

stamps  the 

103 

26 

met 

meet 

103 

Footnote  1 

orces 

forces 

105 

14 

illuminated 

illumined 

105 

last  line 

civilization 

cultivation 

128 

4 

philogical 

philological 

139 

10 

fo 

to 

139 

Footnote  1 

the  latter  and  are 

the  latter  are 

181 

27 

of 

or 

224 

Footnote  1 

Mobetz 

Kobetz 

225 

2 

(Gen.  x,  16) 

(Gen.  x,  6) 

264 

17 

vizers 

viziers 

289 

Footnote  1 

m 

from 

311 

4 

source 

sources 

362 

13 

("Fietists") 

("Pietists") 

418 

last  line 

labor 

labors 

I 

THE  POLITICAL  IDEAL  OF  THE  PROPHETS 
A  Study  in  Biblical  Zionism* 

OF  the  numerous  obstructions  which  the  human 
understanding  encounters  in  its  search  for 
truth  none  perhaps  are  more  troublesome  than  those 
which  Francis  Bacon,  philosopher  as  well  as 
politician,  so  quaintly  designated  as  idola  fori,  "the 
idols  of  the  market":  "those  namely  which  have  erf- 
twined  themselves  around  the  understanding  from 
the  associations  of  words  and  names,"  and  are  "either 
the  names  of  things  which  have  no  existence,  or  they 
are  the  names  of  actual  objects,  but  confused,  badly 
defined,  and  hastily  and  irregularly  abstracted  from 
things."  As  the  subject  of  this  paper  will  unavoid- 
ably lead  me  to  speak  of  politics,  politicians  and  things 
political,  I  must  begin  by  earnestly  entreating  you  to 
dismiss  from  your  minds  those  unpleasant,  nay, 
repulsive  associations  which  have  encrusted  these 
words  in  our  own  times  and  surroundings,  and  to 
transfer  your  thoughts  to  the  days  of  old  when  man 
was    best    defined    as    a    "political    animal,"    when 


*Paper  read  in  the  Course  of  Public  Lectures  of  the  Jewish 
Theological  Seminary  of  America  on  April  1,  190°.  Published 
in  the  Jewish  Comment  on  March  11,  1910.  A  Hebrew  transla- 
tion of  this  essay,  prepared  by  the  author,  was  published  in  the 
Hebrew  monthly  Hatoren  in  1915  and  reprinted  in  pamphlet 
form  by  the  Hebrew  Society  "Ahieber"  in  New  York. 


PAST  AND  PRESENT 


"political"  and  "ideal  were  not  yet  a  contradiction, 
and  when  politics  were  rather  the  lever  to  lift  man 
from  the  stupor  and  selfishness  of  animal  existence 
to  human  virtue  and  self-sacrifice.  If  politics  be  in- 
separable from  compromise-mongering  and  trading 
in  convictions,  then  no  greater  insult  to  prophecy 
and  no  grosser  misconception  of  its  message  could  be 
possible  than  to  associate  it  with  politics.  But  if 
"politics"  mean,  what  they  originally  meant,  devotion 
to  the  commonwealth,  and  "politicians"  designates 
those  whose  life  and  love  are  centered  in  the  common- 
wealth, then  we  are  fully  justified  in  saying  that 
the  prophets  of  Israel  were  essentially  politicians. 
True,  the  prophets  were,  as  they  declared  to  be,  men 
of  God.  The  communion  with  the  Divine — to  us  a 
convenient  phrase,  to  them  an  immediate  reality — 
filled  their  thoughts,  dictated  their  words,  determined 
their  actions.  But  the  prophets  of  Israel  were  at  the 
same  time  men  of  this  world,  deeply  rooted  in  this 
earth,  closely  associated  with  their  fellowmen,  alien 
to  nothing  that  is  human.  The  prophets  of  our 
people  had  little  sympathy  with  those  who  proclaimed 
"my  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world," and  believed  that 
the  problems  and  perplexities  of  humanity  could  be 
solved  by  deserting  humanity.  The  prophets  of 
Israel  were  neither  visionaries  nor  hermits.  To  them 
the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  was  a  kingdom  on  earth  and 
the  calling  of  preachers  in  the  desert  was  essentially 
distasteful.  Their  place  was  in  the  midst  of  their 
nation,  and  even  the  high-strung  prophet,  who  in  a 
moment  of  despair  longed  for  a  lodging  place  in  the 


POLITICAL  IDEAL  OF  THE  PROPHETS  3 

wilderness,  to  leave  his  people  and  to  go  from  them,1 
clung  passionately  to  it  in  all  the  crushing  disasters 
that  befell  it. 

And  the  higher  prophecy  rises,  the  loftier  its  aspira- 
tions, the  more  human  becomes  its  appearance,  the 
readier  does  it  discard  all  external  characteristics: 
the  distinction  of  the  class,  the  mannerisms  of  the 
school,  the  cant  of  the  profession.  The  true  prophet 
even  resents  the  title  of  a  prophet,2  and  he  bitterly 
scorns  the  professional  "men  of  God"  who  osten- 
tatiously display  the  hairen  mantle  of  prophecy  in 
order  to  cheat.3  The  true  prophet  is  a  ben  Adam, 
a  "son  of  man,"  in  the  best  human  sense  of  the  word: 
he  is  an  affectionate  husband,  a  loving  father,  a  loyal 
citizen,  a  self-sacrificing  patriot.  But,  while  in  external 
life  in  nothing  distinguished  from  his  fellowmen,  the 
fountain  from  which  his  life  springs,  is  essentially  and 
fundamentally  different:  his  soul  is  full  of  the  spirit 
of  the  Lord,4  and  the  Divine  word  is  shut  up  in  his 
bones  as  a  scorching  fire5 — not  that  flickering  harm- 
less flame  which  lights  the  hearth,  but  that  raging 
fire  of  God  which  splitteth  the  rock.6 

For,  while  human  and  humane  as  long  as  the 
interests  of  man  are  concerned,  the  prophet  becomes 
implacable  and  inhuman  when  these  interests  clash 


Jeremiah  ix,  1. 
2Amos  vii,  14. 
3Zechariah  xiii,  4. 

4Cf.  Micah  iii,  8,  where  the  true  prophet  is  contrasted  with 
the  false  prophet. 
sJeremiah  xx,  9. 
6Ibidem  xxiii,  29. 


PAST  AND  PRESENT 


with  those  of  God.  The  prophet  is  a  man  of  reality, 
but  he  does  not  yield  to  reality.  He  is  uncompro- 
mising, pitiless  and  regardless,  ready  to  sacrifice 
everything  and  everybody,  including  himself,  when 
his  convictions  are  at  stake.  And,  while  an  obedient 
member  of  society,  when  the  latter  in  turn  is  obedient 
to  his  ideals,  he  fearlessly  challenges  society  when  it 
refuses  to  conform  with  his  standards,  and,  with  love 
of  humanity  in  his  heart,  becomes  a  man  of  strife 
and  a  man  of  struggle  to  the  whole  earth.1  It  is  this 
dualism,  this  constant  attempt  to  bring  down  Heaven 
to  earth  and  to  force  the  human  flesh  into  the  mould 
of  the  Divine  spirit,  which  constitutes  the  innermost 
essence,  the  struggle,  the  failure  and  the  triumph 
of  the  prophets  of  Israel. 

Thus  the  source  of  prophecy  is  divine,  its  end  and 
means  are  human;  proceeding  from  God,  it  addresses 
itself  to  man  through  human  agencies  for  human 
purposes.  This  essentially  human  aspect  of  Jewish 
prophecy  must  be  constantly  borne  in  mind,  if  we 
wish  to  grasp  the  full  meaning  of  what  it  stands  for. 
It  is  this  tendency  which  explains  the  great  fact  that 
the  prophetic  message,  while  purely  religious  as 
regards  its  sanction  and  stimulus,  is  in  its  contents 
neither  metaphysical  nor  doctrinal,  but  of  an  essen- 
tially practical  nature,  that  the  great  ideal  of  Holiness 
which  forms  the  everlasting  national  aspiration  of  our 
people  is  emphasized  by  the  prophets  not  in  its 
theological  but  in  its  human  aspect,  and  is  transformed 
by  them  into  the  social,  or  ethical,  ideal  of  Righteous- 


Jeremiah  xv,  10. 


POLITICAL  IDEAL  OF  THE  PROPHETS  5 

ness.  It  finally  accounts  for  the  fact  that  the  social 
ideal  of  righteousness,  as  formulated  by  the  prophets, 
receives  and  unalterably  retains  a  political  form. 

For  a  social  ideal,  as  its  attribute  indicates,  can 
only  be  realized  in  society.  "Imagine  a  human 
being,"  observes  a  great  Jewish  thinker  of  the  Middle 
Ages,1  "living  by  himself,  without  any  intercourse 
with  his  fellow-creatures.  You  will  find  that  all 
ethical  ideals  are  utterly  useless  to  him  and  contribute 
in  nothing  toward  the  perfection  of  his  character." 
Since  human  society  is  not  a  herd,  but  is  of  necessity 
organized,  it  follows  that  the  ideal  of  righteousness 
can  only  be  realized  in  organized  society,  i.  e.,  in  a 
commonwealth,  or  a  state.  The  prophets  were  well 
aware — and  they  untiringly  and  vehemently  pro- 
claimed it — that  the  State,  like  every  other  human 
institution,  can  be  turned  away  from  its  purpose,  and 
may  become  an  instrument  to  combat  righteousness. 
But  the  prophets  were  wise  enough  not  to  discard 
the  use  of  a  thing  because  of  its  possible  misuse. 
They  realized  that  the  State,  though  far  from  perfec- 
tion— as  far  from  it  as  is  any  other  human  agency, 
— was  yet  the  only  and  indispensable  vehicle  of  carry- 
ing righteousness  into  life,  and  they  set  about  to 
perfect  it.  They  rightly  believed  that  the  social  ideal 
depends  for  its  realization  as  much  on  the  State 
as  does  the  State  for  its  reason  for  existence  on  the 
social  ideal.  Hence  the  social  ideal  as  realized  in  the 
body  politic  and  the  body  politic  as  necessitated  and 
uplifted  by  the  social  ideal  constitutes  the  point  of 
gravity  in  the  message  of  the  prophets. 


1Maimonides,  More  Nebukim  iii,  54. 


PAST  AND  PRESENT 


What,  then,  was  the  political  ideal  of  the  prophets? 
What  was  the  form  and  the  tendency  of  the  Jewish 
body  politic  as  best  fitted  to  realize  and  carry  into 
effect  the  ideal  of  Holiness,  and  in  what  respect  or 
respects  did  it  differ  from  the  ideal  of  the  bulk  of  the 
people?  In  order  to  comprehend  in  its  innermost 
significance  the  political  ideal  of  the  prophets  and 
the  incalculable  issues  it  involved  for  the  develop- 
ment of  Israel  and  through  it  for  that  of  mankind,  we 
may  be  permitted  to  retrace  our  steps  and  to  delve  for 
a  moment  in  "First  Principles." 

Every  one  of  us,  whether  reared  in  the  ideas  of  the 
American  constitution,  or  whether  imbued  with  the 
spirit  of  its  prototype,  the  ancient  consitution  of  our 
Torah,  is  "dedicated  to  the  proposition  that  all  men 
are  created  equal."  But  while  equality,  in  the  sense 
of  equal  opportunity,  is  the  indispensable  condition 
of  a  healthy  public  life  and  its  only  salvation  from 
tyranny,  oppression  and  brutal  force,  it  is  just  as 
certain,  when  taken  as  a  statement  of  fact,  that  no 
two  men  were  ever  created  equal.  The  fundamental 
law  of  nature  is  not  equality  but  variety,  and  Leibniz 
expressed  a  lofty  truth  in  simple  words  when  he 
remarked  that  no  two  leaves  were  ever  found  to  be 
truly  equal.  This  variety,  which  is  the  basis  and 
stepping  stone  of  the  harmony  of  the  Cosmos,  is  the 
result  of  the  process  of  differentiation,  which  becomes 
more  and  more  accentuated,  the  higher  we  rise  in  the 
scale  of  nature,  and  reaches  its  culmination  in  man  and 
human  aggregates.  Every  form  of  existence  in  nature, 
be  it  an  object,  a  man,  or  a  nation,  has  its  own  dis- 
tinct   place   in    the    Universe,   which    can    truly  be 


POLITICAL  IDEAL  OF  THE  PROPHETS  7 

filled  only  by  itself — and  by  no  other.  As  long  as  it 
fills  the  place  destined  for  it,  it  has  a  raison  d'etre  and 
must  live.  The  more  exceptional  this  place  and  the 
more  important  in  the  economy  of  the  Universe,  the 
stronger  is  its  raison  d'etre,  the  greater  its  vitaility. 
But  when  it  is  no  more  able  or  willing  to  fill  its  own 
true  place,  and  is  in  consequence  bound  to  encroach 
on  others,  then  it  has  lost  its  reason  for  existence; 
it  has  become  a  mere  duplication,  which  in  nature  is 
identical  with  waste,  and  it  must  inevitably  dis- 
appear. 

From  the  very  moment  when  Israel  stepped  forth 
into  the  light  of  history  it  has  stood  out  as  a  singu- 
larly marked  national  type.  When  yet  scarcely 
lopped  off  from  the  common  Semitic  stock,  it  already 
felt  itself  to  be  distinct,  not  only  from  the  kindred 
Semitic  races,  but  also  from  the  rest  of  mankind. 
This  distinction  is  based  on  the  fact  that  Israel  is  the 
people  of  God.  Hence  the  higher  the  conception 
of  God  rises,  the  higher  rises  with  it  the  distinction  of 
Israel.  With  the  moment  when  the  God  of  the  Uni- 
verse, the  Maker  of  Heaven  and  Earth,  was  identified 
with  the  national  God  of  Israel,  who  brought  it  forth 
from  the  land  of  Egypt,  Israel's  distinction  reached  an 
unapproachable  height  and  became  undisputed  su- 
premacy. Israel  is  now  indestructible,  for  his  reason 
for  existence  is  as  everlasting  as  his  God.  Israel  has 
become  an  indispensable  part  of  the  Universe  and  his 
existence  an  unalterable  law  of  Nature.1 


1Cf.  Jeremiah  xxxi,  34-36;  see  also  xxxiii,  25-26. 


PAST  AND  PRESENT 


But  Israel  is  not  only  superior  to  all  other  nations; 
it  altogether  stands  on  a  different  level:  it  is  unique; 
it  is  a  nation  sui  generis.  If  the  Lord  is  "Most  High" 
above  all  gods,  then  His  people  Israel  is,  consistently 
enough,  "most  high"  above  all  nations.1  "Hear,  O 
Israel,  the  Lord  our  God,  the  Lord  is  one,"2  is  the 
logical  premise  to  the  declaration:  "Who  is  like  thee, 
O  Israel,  a  nation  one  on  earth?"3  This  distinction 
places  Israel  on  a  lofty  unassailable  platform,  above 
and  apart  from  all  other  nations.  It  involves  com- 
plete isolation,  an  entirely  separate  existence,  with 
separate  standards  and  separate  forms  of  life.  Israel 
as  the  "people  of  God"  can  only  lose  through  its  con- 
tact with  nations  that  "know  not  God;"  it  can  only 
then  remain  true  to  its  distinction  when  it  is,  as  the 
ancient  heathen  seer  declared  it  to  be,  "a  nation 
dwelling  by  itself,  and  not  counted  among  the  people."44 

Such  was  the  idea  of  Israel's  selection  as  conceived 
by  the  great  minds  of  our  people — arrogant,  will  say 
those  who  revel  in  the  mathematics  of  the  greatest 
happiness  of  the  greatest  number;  sublime,  will  say 
others  who  calculate  what  humanity  would  have  re- 
mained without  it. 

But  what  was  the  attitude  of  the  bulk  of  the  people 
toward  this  great  idea  of  the  supremacy  of  Israel? 
The  people  acted  as  they  are  always  prone  to  act. 
They  were  ready  to  accept  the  goods,  but  unwilling  to 
pay   the   price.     From   the   manner   in   which   Amos 


*Cf.  Deuteronomy  xxvi,  19;  xxviii,  1. 

2Ibidem  vi,  4. 

3I  Chronicles  xvii,  21. 

4Numbers  xxiii,  9. 


POLITICAL  IDEAL  OF  THE  PROPHETS  9 

taunts  the  Ephraimites  for  styling  themselves  "the 
chief  of  the  nations,"1  or  Ezekiel  takes  the  Moabites 
and  Edomites  to  task  for  saying:  "Behold,  the  house 
of  Judah  hath  now  become  like  all  other  nations,"2  as 
well  as  from  the  venomous  hatred  which  all  neighbor- 
ing nationalities  bore  toward  Israel,  that  deadly  hatred 
with  which  mediocrity  pursues  superiority, — from 
these  and  other  indications,3  we  may  safely  conclude 
that  the  belief  in  Israel's  selection  was  deeply  rooted 
in  all  classes  of  the  Israelitish  nation.  But  while 
eager  to  accept  the  claim  of  supremacy  so  flattering 
to  its  self-consciousness,  the  people  refused  to  take 
upon  itself  the  consequences  of  an  isolated  life  involved 
in  this  supremacy.  For  nations  are  as  gregarious  as 
individuals,  and  "splendid  isolation"  may  be  splendid 
but  by  no  means  pleasant.  Israel  shivered  on  the 
lonesome  summit  assigned  to  it  by  Providence,  and 
it  longed  to  descend  to  less  lofty  but  more  habitable 
plains.  It  relinquished  the  unique  but  isolated  post 
on  which  God  had  placed  it,  and  was  satisfied  to 
hold  one  of  the  numerous  subordinate  positions 
occupied  by  other  nationalities.  It  abandoned  its 
religious  supremacy,  which  was  its  reason  for  existence, 
and  was  glad  to  sink  to  the  level  of  its  neighbors. 
"They  were  mingled  among  the  heathen  and  learned 
their  works."4      The  God  of  Israel  became  a  counter- 


1Amos  vi,  1. 

2Ezekiel  xxv,  8.     Compare  also  Zephaniah  ii,  8. 

3On  the  Ammonites,  compare  Ezekiel  xxv,  3;  on  the  Philis- 
tines, ib.  14;  on  the  Phenicians,  ib.  xxvi,  2;  The  general  opposi- 
tion to  Israel  may  be  inferred  from  such  passages  as  Micah  iv,  1 1 
and  Lamentations  ii,  16. 

4Psalm  cvi,  35. 


10  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

part  of  the  Baal,  and  the  religion  of  Israel  a  copy  of 
that  of  the  Canaanites.  Consequently,  Israel's  claim 
to  supreriority,  to  "selection,"  could  no  more  lie  in  the 
sphere  of  religion.  Superiority  itself  is  valuable  to  it 
only  when  measured  by  the  standards  of  mediocrity. 
Hence  Israel's  supremacy  could  only  consist  in  that 
for  which  all  other  nations  were  competing — could 
only  be  political. 

It  may  seem  strange  and  may  appear  as  an  im- 
peachment of  the  common  sense  of  our  ancestors 
that  Israel,  with  its  insignificant  territory,  which  can 
easily  lose  itself  in  a  fold  of  the  American  flag,  and  its 
slender  political  resources,  should  ever  have  attempted 
to  lay  claim  to  political  superiority.  But  we  must 
not  forget  that  superiority  is  only  a  matter  of  com- 
parison. However  small  Israel's  territory  may  have 
been  when  measured  by  the  enormous  commonwealths 
of  the  present  day  or  even  by  the  great  empires  of 
antiquity,  it  was  still  larger  than  that  of  its  neighbors. 
The  Israelitish  state  was  more  extensive  than  the  fa- 
mous politics  of  the  Phoenicians  and  the  republics  of 
the  Philistines  in  the  West,  the  kingdoms  of  Edom, 
Moab  and  Ammon  in  the  South  and  East,  and,  when 
presenting  a  united  front,  was  even  superior  to  Aram 
in  the  North. 

As  for  the  natural  resources  and  attractions  of 
the  country,  Palestine  was  a  land  flowing  with  milk 
and  honey,  a  land  on  which  God's  eyes  rest  from  the 
beginning  of  the  year  to  the  end  of  the  year,1  a  land 
which  Jeremiah  calls  the  beauty  of  the  beauties  of 


'Deuteronomy  xi,  12. 


POLITICAL  IDEAL  OF  THE  PROPHETS  11 

nations1,  and  even  Ezekiel,  living  on  the  fertile  soil 
of  Babylonia,  proudly  designates  as  the  beauty  of  all 
lands.2 

As  for  the  capital,  Jerusalem  was  no  doubt  the 
metropolis  of  a  very  considerable  portion  of  Western 
Asia.  Already  as  early  as  1400  B.  C.  E.,  prior  to  the 
occupation  of  Palestine  by  the  Israelites,  Jerusalem 
seems  to  have  been,  if  we  are  to  trust  the  words  of  its 
governor,  Abd-Hiba,  as  preserved  in  the  Tell  Amarna 
tablets,  a  celebrated  center.  Nineveh  and  Babylon 
were  too  far  away  to  impair  her  importance,  and  Sidon 
and  Tyre,  which  were  nearer,  were  essentially  commer- 
cial emporiums.  Thus  Jerusalem  became  "a  mistress 
among  the  nations,  a  princess  among  the  provinces,"3 
and  her  magnificent  situation  and  the  cheerfulness  of 
her  city  life  made  her  fully  deserve  the  epithet  "per- 
fection of  beauty,"4    "the  joy  of  the  whole  earth."5 

Apart  from  these  facts  of  reality,  Israel  still  fondly 
clung  to  its  old  aspiration  that  its  seed  shall  be  as 
numerous  as  the  stars  of  heaven  and  as  the  sand  of  the 
sea,  and  that  its  territory  shall  extend  from  the  border 
of  Egypt  to  the  great  river,  the  river  Euphrates,  and, 
although  seldom  realized,  it  was  a  hope;  and  hope  in 
the  life  of  a  nation  is  often  more  than  reality.  Thus 
Israel's  claim  to  superiority  was,  at  least  in  its  own 
eyes,  abundantly  justified,  and  it  henceforward  de- 
voted its  whole  life  and  energy  to  the  task  of  fostering 


Mii,  19. 
2xx,  6,  15. 
3Lamentations  '.,  1. 
4Ibidem  ii,  15;  Psalm  1,  2. 
5Lamentations  ii,  15;  Psalm  xlviii,  3. 


12  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

and  maintaining  this  political  supremacy.  The  State 
is  no  more  a  means  to  an  end,  the  insturment  for  the 
realization  of  the  social  ideal,  but  an  end  in  itself:  the 
expression  of  Israel's  political  grandeur. 

This,  however,  could  only  last  so  long  as  the  Assy- 
rian colossus  kept  out  of  sight.  With  the  moment  the 
latter  appears  on  the  scene,  Israel's  political  superiority 
is  no  more  than  foolish  impertinence,  an  empty  and 
miserable  illusion.  For  what  was  all  the  political 
greatness  of  Israel,  the  "glory  of  Jacob,"  as  they 
proudly  styled  it,  as  compared  with  this  monster  which 
carried  with  it  everywhere  dread  and  defeat?  What 
were  all  the  "men  of  valor"  in  Israel  besides  the  ir- 
resistible Assyrian  army  in  which  "none  is  weary  and 
none  is  stumbling,  none  is  slumbering  and  none  is 
asleep,"1  which  still  strikes  us  with  terror  on  the  an- 
cient monuments  and  in  the  thrilling  descriptions  of 
the  prophets?2  A  struggle  of  life  and  death  ensues. 
Israel  hopes  to  keep  up  the  illusion  of  its  political 
supremacy  by  means  of  diplomacy,  and  thus  save 
one  illusion  by  another.  It  flutters  between  Assyria 
and  Egypt,  "like  a  silly  dove  without  understanding."3 
But  Egypt  proves  a  broken  reed4  and  Israel's  doom  is 
sealed.  The  northern  kingdom,  the  larger  of  the  two, 
falls  a  prey  to  Assyria,  and  its  population  is  deported. 
Israel  is  not  only  struck  in  its  body;  it  is  struck  in  its 
very  heart:    the  claim  to  superiority  which    it  had 


1Isaiah  v,  27. 

2Cf.  Joel  ii,  1-11,  and  especially  the  awe-inspiring  descrip- 
tion, Nahum  ii,  4  ff. 
3Hosea  vii,  11. 
4II  Kings  xviii,  21  =  Isaiah  xxxvi,  6. 


POLITICAL  IDEAL  OF  THE  PROPHETS  13 

fondled  for  centuries  had  miserably  vanished  like  a 
vapor  before  the  rising  sun.  It  has  no  longer  any 
reason  for  existence,  it  has  nothing  to  live  for.  The 
proud  vineyard  of  Ephraim  is  nothing  more  than 
ordinary  brushwood  which  is  burned  and  thrown 
away  as  useless.1  It  gives  up  the  fight  and  is  soon 
swallowed  up. 

Now  comes  the  turn  of  Judah.  Owing  to  the  de- 
cline and  subsequent  destruction  of  the  Assyrian 
Empire,  Judah  was  granted  a  respite.  Though  sadly 
diminished,  it  now  calls  and  considers  itself  the 
"remnant  of  Israel,"  and  takes  over  the  role  of  the 
"chief  of  nations"  in  the  old  sense  of  political  supre- 
macy. But  instead  of  Assyria,  Chaldea  rises,  the 
same  land-devouring  monster,  "that  smite th  the 
peoples  in  wrath  with  a  continual  stroke,  that  ruleth 
the  nations  in  anger,  persecuting  and  no  end."2  The 
same  struggle  ensues  with  the  same  consequences. 
Oholivah  is  forced  to  empty  the  deep  and  broad  cup  of 
her  elder  sister  Oholah.3  Judea  is  destroyed  and 
Judah  deported.  Her  political  superiority  bursts 
like  a  soap  bubble,  her  raison  d'etre  is  destroyed;  she 
has  nothing  to  live  for. 

For  what  was  Jacob's  inheritance  in  comparison 
with  the  endless  territories  of  Nebuchadnezzar's  Em- 
pire? What  was  the  "joy  of  the  whole  earth"  beside 
the  gigantic  metropolis  of  Babylon,  over  whose  walls, 
as  the  ancient  historians  tell  us,  six  carriages  could 
run  to  and  fro?     What  was  even  the  temple  of  Jeru- 

1Ezekiel  xv,  1. 
2Isaiah  xiv,  6. 
3Ezekiel  xxiii,  32, 


14  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

salem,  of  which  the  Judaeans  were  so  inordinately 
proud,  "the  excellency  of  their  strength,  the  desire 
of  their  eyes,  the  yearning  of  their  soul,"1  beside  the 
immeasurably  lofty  Babylonian  Zikkurrat,2  whose 
tops,  glittering  in  all  the  colors  of  the  rainbow,  lost 
themselves  in  the  clouds?  The  Judeans  in  Babylon 
saw  no  meaning  in  their  lives.  "Our  bones  are  dried 
up,  our  hope  is  destroyed;  we  are  lost,"3  and  the  only 
logical  consequence  seemed  to  be:  "Let  us  be  like  the 
heathen,  like  the  nations  of  the  earth!"4  Judah  was 
prepared  to  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  her  elder  sister. 
She  was  standing  on  the  brink  of  the  abyss  and  ready 
to  throw  herself  into  it.  In  a  moment  she  would  have 
been  lost,  and,  with  her  lack  of  monuments,  lost 
without  a  trace,  except  for  a  few  doubtful  references 
on  the  ancient  inscriptions — if  the  ancient  inscriptions, 
without  the  stimulating  interest  in  the  Bible,  had  ever 
been  rescued  from  oblivion. 

But  Judah  did  not  leap  into  the  abyss  of  destruction. 
In  the  last  moment,  Judah  was  caught  by  an  invisible 
hand  from  behind  and  dragged  away  from  the  brink. 
Judah  seemed  a  valley  of  dry  bones,  with  no  sign  of 
life.  But  suddenly  a  breath  of  life  came  and  began  to 
breathe  upon  these  slain.  "And  the  breath  came, 
and  they  lived,  and  stood  up  upon  their  feet,  an 
exceedingly  great  army."5      And  the  life-giving  breath 


ibidem  xxiv,  21. 

2Temple    towers — the     prototype     of     the    Mohammedan 
minarets. 

3Ezekiel  xxxvii,  11. 
4Ibidem  xx,  32. 
5Tbidem  xxxvii,  9-10. 


POLITICAL  IDEAL  OF  THE  PROPHETS  15 

which  saved  Judah  from  destruction  and  infused  into 
it  the  desire  and  the  power  to  live  was  none  other 
than  the  political  ideal  of  the  prophets. 

In  what  way  then  did  the  prophets  accomplish  the 
gigantic  task  of  raising  a  nation  from  the  dead  and  fill 
it  with  new  indestructible  vitality?  The  answer  is 
implied  in  what  has  preceded.  They  accomplished  it 
by  transferring  Israel's  claim  to  superiority  from  a 
sphere  where  it  was  bound  to  crumble  at  the  slightest 
contact  with  reality  to  a  domain  where  it  was  un- 
assailable and  indestructible:  they  accomplished  it  by 
turning  the  political  superiority  of  Israel  into  religious, 
or  spiritual,  supremacy. 

However,  had  the  prophets  done  nothing  more  than 
to  formulate  and  emphasize  the  ideal  of  the  religious 
selection  of  Israel,  they  would  have  done  little,  or  less 
than  little.  Their  ideal  would  have  resulted  in  a  sort 
of  Utopia,  in  a  Never-land  and  Nowhere-land,  beyond 
time  and  space,  without  any  relation  to  real  national 
life.  But  the  prophets  did  succeed  because,  politicians 
that  they  were,  they  blended  this  transcendental 
ideal  with  the  concrete  historical  forces,  and  thus 
made  it  an  immediate  powerful  factor  in  life. 

For  it  is  in  essential  agreement  with  the  human 
aspect  of  Jewish  prophecy  that  the  prophets  of  Israel, 
these  revolutionists  par  excellence,  fully  and  solicitous- 
ly acknowledge  all  that  is  historical  in  the  life  of  the 
nation,  all  that  has  matured  in  the  course  of 
national  existence,  and  has  proved  its  efficacy  and 
vitality.  It  is  a  remarkable  fact,  by  no  means  suffi- 
ciently appreciated,  that  the  prophets  of  Israel,  who 
frequently    were    the    irreconcilable    enemies    of    the 


16  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

powers  that  be,  who  were  a  pillar  of  iron  and  a  wall  of 
brass  against  the  kings  of  Judah  and  her  princes,1 
never  tried  to  overthrow  the  government,  or  to  under- 
mine the  constitution  of  their  country.  The  deadly 
opponents  of  some  of  the  individual  occupants  of  the 
throne  of  David,  whom  they  denounced  with  a  bitter- 
ness and  violence  which,  even  in  modern  times,  would 
send  them  to  jail  and  scaffold,  they  were  at  the  same 
time  the  staunchest  upholders  of  the  Davidic  dynasty. 
While  lashing  the  sins  of  Jerusalem,  they  were  as  proud 
of  their  capital  as  any  other  metropolitan  resident, 
and,  while  calling  down  the  vengeance  of  Heaven  on 
the  land  of  their  birth,  they  loved  it  with  all  the  ardor 
of  their  prophetic  soul. 

It  is  no  wonder,  therefore,  that  it  never  occured  to 
the  prophets  to  destroy  the  pernicious  phantom  of 
political  superiority  by  destroying  the  body  politic  on 
which  it  depended.  The  prophets  full  well  knew  that 
a  nation  without  a  State  is  like  a  spirit  without  a 
body,  that  a  nation,  like  any  other  organism,  cannot 
perform  its  functions  when  dissected  into  atoms. 
But,  while  fully  recognizing  the  necessity  of  the  State 
and  all  the  forces  attached  to  it,  they  endeavored  to 
infuse  into  it  a  new  soul,  to  assign  to  it  a  new  function. 
They  believed  and  proclaimed  that  the  polity  in  itself 
was  indispensable,  yet  not  indispensable  in  itself,  but 
only  as  a  means  to  an  end;  The  State  in  itself  is  not 
the  "glory  of  Jacob,"  the  expression  of  Israel's  supe- 
riority, it  is  merely  the  human  agency  for  carrying 
into  effect  the  true  superiority  of  Israel — the  religious, 
or    social,    or    ethical  ideal. 

1Jeremiah  i,  IS. 


POLITICAL  IDEAL  OF  THE  PROPHETS  17 

This  political  ideal  manifests  itself  in  the  activity 
of  all  the  prophets  of  Israel,  at  least  of  those  whom  we 
are  able  to  judge  by  their  writings.  It  is  visible  in 
Amos  and  Hosea,  although  in  their  case,  probably 
owing  to  the  fragmentary  character  of  their  records, 
we  observe  it  rather  in  its  effect  than  in  its  genesis. 
At  a  time  of  the  highest  political  triumph  of  Israel, 
the  herdman  of  Tekoa,  wrought  up  over  the  religious 
and  social  corruption  of  the  Northern  Kingdom, 
marches  through  the  land  of  Israel,  crying:  "The 
virgin  of  Israel  is  fallen,  she  shall  no  more  rise.  She 
is  forsaken  upon  the  ground,  there  is  none  to  raise  her 
up!"1  And  Hosea,  barely  a  generation  later,  when  the 
Israelites  were  forming  alliances  with  the  leading  powers 
of  Asia,  untiringly  scorns  their  vain  and  ridiculous 
attempts  to  play  a  political  role.  "Ephraim  pursueth 
wind,  and  followeth  after  the  east  wind:  he  daily  in- 
creaseth  lies  and  desolation,  and  they  make  a  covenant 
with  Assyria,  and  oil  is  carried  into  Egypt."2 

But  its  most  perfect  formulation  and  crucial  test 
the  political  ideal  of  the  prophets  received  at  the 
hands  of  Isaiah. 

It  would  not  accord  with  historic  truth  and  would 
involve  a  disregard  of  the  prophets  before  and  at  the 
time  of  Isaiah,  were  we  to  credit  him  with  the  sole 
authorship  of  the  ideas  we  find  expressed  in  his 
prophecies.  There  is  little  in  the  teachings  of  Isaiah 
which  is  not  already  implied  in  those  of  his  predeces- 
sors Amos   or   Hosea,   and   clearly  expressed   by  his 


1Amos  v,  2. 
2  Hosea  xii,  2. 


18  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

younger  contemporary  Micah.  But  to  Isaiah  is  due 
the  triumph  of  the  political  ideal  of  the  prophets,  not 
only  because  he  gave  it  full  and  sublime  expression 
but  because,  living  at  the  most  decisive  moment  in 
Judean  history,  and  being  nearer  to  the  governing 
powers  than  any  other  prophet,  he  was  able  to  make 
his  ideal  an  immediate  factor  in  life. 

Isaiah  lived  at  a  time  when  the  strong  and  many 
waters  of  the  Euphrates  began  to  roll  irresistibly  to- 
ward the  Mediterranean,  "passing  through  Judah, 
overflowing  and  going  over,  reaching  even  to  the 
neck."1  They  first  swallowed  Ephraim,  but  Isaiah 
knew  that  Judah,  too,  would  not  be  spared.  He  saw 
the  disastrous  effects  of  the  misconceived  political 
ideal  in  the  fate  of  the  North,  and  he  set  about  to 
avert  the  same  fate  from  the  South. 

In  doing  this  Isaiah  turns  to  account  all  the  histori- 
cal forces  at  the  disposal  of  the  nation.  Isaiah  is  fully 
aware  that  the  Judean  commonwealth  has  been  turned 
away  from  its  purpose,  and,  instead  of  being  an  instru- 
ment of  righteousness,  has  become  a  tool  of  iniquity. 
No  prophet  lashes  with  such  furious  eloquence  the 
social  wrongs  of  public  life  and  the  wickedness  of 
Judah's  governing  classes.  Yet  he  is  far  from  dis- 
carding the  State  altogether.  Isaiah  is  a  most  fervent 
patriot  of  the  land  of  Israel,  and  this  with  a  peculiar 
Judean  admixture — which  is  fully  in  keeping  with  the 
general  tendency  of  the  political  development  in  the 
Southern  kingdom.  It  is  a  remarkable  phenomenon 
that,  while  national  life  in  the  North  is  characterized 

Isaiah  viii,  7-8. 


POLITICAL  IDEAL  OF  THE  PROPHETS  19 

by  decentralization,  the  sister  kingdom  in  the  south 
is  marked  by  a  wonderful,  almost  unparalleled  ten- 
dency toward  centralization.  In  Israel  we  find  many 
tribes  whose  interests  were  by  no  means  harmonious, 
many  dynasties,  many  sanctuaries,  many  capitals. 
There  was  no  undisputed  center  toward  which  national 
life  could  gravitate.  In  Judah,  which  of  course  was 
smaller,  we  find  only  one  tribe,  Simeon  having  amal- 
gamated with  Judah  at  a  very  early  period,  and  Ben- 
jamin never  asserting  its  individuality.  During  the 
whole  period  of  Judea's  existence  we  find  only  one 
dynasty,  with  not  a  single  attempt  on  the  part  of  the 
people  to  replace  it.1  We  find  only  one  sacrificial 
center  of  undisputed  superiority  which  the  best  of  the 
nation  endeavored  more  and  more  to  make  the  ex- 
clusive center  of  the  national  religion. 

Lastly,  we  find  only  one  capital.  In  his  famous 
Prism  inscription,  Sennacherib  of  Assyria  boasts  of 
having  besieged  no  less  than  forty-six  fortified  cities 
in  Judah,  apart  from  minor  localities  "without  num- 
ber." Yet  it  is  significant  that  none  of  these  cities 
figures  with  any  prominence  in  the  history  of  Judah, 
or  seems  to  have  appreciably  affected  the  life  of  the 
country.  Jerusalem  is  not  only  the  capital  of  Judah, 
it  is  Judah  herself.  Zion  is  the  axis  around  which  the 
whole  life  and  activity  of  the  nation  rotates.  This 
overwhelmingly  commanding  position  of  Jerusalem, 
coupled  with  her  unassailable  natural  situation,  and 


^Athaliah's  brief  reign  is  an  exception  which  confirms  the 
rule.  She  usurped  the  throne  and  paid  with  her  life  for  it. 
See  later  p  41  et  seg. 


20  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

probably  also  under  the  influence  of  the  crude  popular 
idea  which  regarded  Zion,  in  a  very  literal  sense,  as  the 
seat  and  dwelling  place  of  the  Almighty,  gave  rise 
to  the  peculiar  belief  in  the  inviolability  of  Zion,  to  the 
conviction  that  Zion,  defended  by  her  Divine  resident, 
could  not  be  conquered.  Already  Micah,  as  did 
afterwards  on  a  similar  occasion  Jeremiah,1  predicted 
the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  merely  as  a  protest  against 
the  leaders  of  the  nation  "who  build  up  Zion  with 
blood  and  Jerusalem  with  iniquity,"  and  "yet  lean 
upon  the  Lord,  saying:  Is  not  the  Lord  among  us? 
No  evil  can  come  upon  us."2  And  how  widespread 
this  conviction  was  even  outside  of  Judah,  we  can 
infer  from  the  assertion  of  the  Biblical  poet  that  "the 
kings  of  the  earth  and  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  world 
would  not  have  believed  that  the  adversary  and  the 
enemy  could  have  entered  into  the  gates  of  Jerusa- 
lem."3 

Isaiah,  himself  a  resident  of  the  metropolis,  gives 
his  prophetic  sanction  to  this  belief  of  the  people,  and 
the  doctrine  of  the  inviolability  of  Zion  becomes  part 
and  parcel  of  the  prophet's  political  ideal.  "Look 
upon  Zion,  the  city  of  our  solemnities.  Thine  eyes 
shall  see  Jerusalem  a  quiet  habitation,  a  tabernacle 
that  shall  not  be  taken  down;  not  one  of  the  stakes 
thereof  shall  ever  be  removed,  neither  shall  any  of  the 
cords  thereof  be  broken."4  It  is  not  to  be  assumed 
that   Isaiah,  who  at  his  installation  beheld  God  sit- 

*Cf.  Jeremiah  vii,  4,  9-10. 
2Micahiii,  10-11. 
3Lamentations  iv,  12. 
4Isaiah  xxxiii,  20. 


POLITICAL  IDEAL  OF  THE  PROPHETS  21 

ting  on  His  heavenly  throne  and  filling  the  whole  earth 
with  His  glory,1  could  ever  have  shared  the  popular 
mythological  notion  which  tied  down  the  Omni- 
present to  the  narrow  confines  of  Zion.  Isaiah's 
doctrine  must  rather  have  rested  on  the  belief  that  the 
city  which  contained  the  religious  center  of  the  nation, 
which  was  the  foundation  of  David  and  the  seat  of  his 
dynasty,  and  was  the  scene  of  the  most  memorable 
and  most  sacred  experiences  of  the  people,  was  indis- 
solubly  bound  up  with  the  existence  of  Judah.  But 
however  invaluable  Zion  may  be,  she  is  valueless  in 
herself;  what  renders  her  invaluable  is  not  the  piece 
of  ground  she  covers,  but  the  ideal  she  embodies:  as  a 
city  of  righteousness,  in  which  righteousness  has  its 
lodging  place.2  "Therefore  thus  saith  the  Lord  God: 
Behold,  I  lay  in  Zion  for  a  foudation  a  stone,  a  tried 
stone,  a  precious  cornerstone,  a  sure  foundation.  .  . 
But  judgment  also  will  I  lay  to  the  line  and  righteous- 
ness to  the  plummet  and  the  hail  shall  sweep  away  the 
refuge  of  lies."3  Zion  is  the  political  center  of  the 
spiritual,  or  religious,  or  ethical,  supremacy  of  Israel: 
the  mount  of  Zion  is  lofty  above  all  mounts,  and  not 
only  the  house  of  Jacob  but  the  whole  of  mankind 
shall  stream  unto  it.  "For  out  of  Zion  shall  go  forth 
the  Law,  and  the  Word  of  the  Lord  from  Jerusalem."4 
If  we  be  permitted  to  apply  latter-day  slogans  to 
phenomena  of  a  remote  and  venerable  past,  then  I 
think  we  can  no  more  fitly  express  the  fundamental 

1Ibidem  vi,  1,  3. 
2Ib.  i,  21,  26. 
3Ib.  xxviii,  16-17. 
4Ib.  ii,  2-3. 


11  PAST  AND  PRKSKNT 


idea  of  Isaiah  than  by  terming  it  Spiritual  Zionism: 
Zion,  the  inalienable  center  of  the  Jewish  nation,  yet 
not  the  seat  of  its  political  grandeur,  but  the  frame  and 
the  focus  of  its  spiritual  aspirations,  whether  em- 
bodied in  righteousness,  religion,  or  culture. 

This  cardinal  doctrine  of  Isaiah — the  inviolability 
of  Zion — is  supplemented  by  another  which  gave  the 
former  its  driving  force  and  an  immediate  effect  on  the 
course  of  political  life.  I  mean  the  idea  which  Isaiah 
symbolized  by  naming  his  son  Shear  Yashub,  "A- 
Remnant-will-return."  Isaiah  witnessed  in  the  early 
part  of  his  ministry  the  decline  and  downfall  of  the 
Northern  kingdom.  The  house  of  Jacob,  which  was 
politically  split  into  two,  yet  nationally  always  felt 
itself  as  one,  was  now  robbed  of  its  larger  half.  Judah 
became  a  mere  "remnant  of  Israel."  But  Isaiah 
recognized  that,  even  in  its  present  reduced  state,  the 
nation  in  its  totality  was  still  too  large,  and  neither 
willing  nor  capable  to  be  the  executive  of  Israel's 
spiritual  aspirations.  The  bulk  of  the  people  con- 
sciously and  maliciously  made  their  heart  fat,  their 
ears  heavy  and  their  eyes  shut.1  There  were  but 
few,  a  small  remnant,  a  remnant  within  the  remnant, 
that  were  fit  and  prepared  to  take  upon  their  shoulders 
the  tasks  for  which  the  nation  lived.  However,  the 
supremacy  of  Israel  not  being  political  but  spiritual, 
it  did  not  depend  on  numbers.  The  very  selection  of 
Israel  implied  a  quantitative  reduction.  Therefore  a 
further  selection  was  necessary  which,  by  a  continued 
process  of  sifting,  should  separate  the  chaff  from  the 

Mb.  vi,  10. 


POLITICAL  IDEAL  OF  THE  PROPHETS  23 

grain  and  allow  but  the  fittest  to  survive.  "And  I 
will  turn  my  hand  upon  thee  and  purely  purge  away 
thy  dross  and  take  away  all  thy  tin."1  At  his  very 
installation,  when  crushed  by  the  enunciation  of  the 
utter  desolation  of  Israel  and  of  a  great  forsaking  in 
the  midst  of  the  land,2  he  was  comforted  by  the 
promise:  "Yet  a  tenth  shall  remain  in  it  which  will 
again  be  purged.  As  a  teil  tree  and  an  oak,  when 
casting  off  their  leaves,  yet  retain  a  stock,  so  shall  a 
holy  seed  be  the  stock  thereof."3  And  with  an  un- 
mistakable side-glance  at  the  old  political  ambition, 
so  eagerly  fondled  by  the  masses,  he  pointedly  ex- 
claims: "Only  a  remnant  shall  return,  a  remnant  of 
Jacob  unto  the  Almighty  God:  For  though  thy  people 
Israel  be  as  the  sand  of  the  sea,  only  a  remnant  of  them 
shall  return ."4 

This  doctrine  had  of  necessity  a  revolutionizing 
effect  on  the  whole  course  of  national  politics.  Judah 
had  thrown  herself  head  over  heels  into  the  whirlpool 
of  politics  which  engulfed  the  nations  of  Western 
Asia.  But  if  Judah's  supremacy  did  not  depend 
on  political  grandeur  and  was  rather  hampered  by 
it,  then  Judah  had  nothing  to  win  and  everything 
to  lose  from  the  contact  with  the  political  factors 
of  the  world.  "Hands  off  from  politics!"  is,  therefore, 
the  earnest  and  constant  warning  of  the  prophet. 
"For  thus  saith  the  Lord  God,  the  Holy  One  of  Israel: 
In  repentance  and  in  rest  shall  ye  be  saved;  in  quiet- 

^b.  i,  25. 
2Ib.  vi,  12. 
3Ib.  vi,  13. 
4Ib.  x,  21-22. 


24  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

ness  and  in  confidence  shall  be  your  bravery."1 
When  King  Ahaz  was  about  to  summon  Assyrian  aid 
against  the  united  attack  of  Aram  and  Israel,  Isaiah 
passionately  dissuaded  him  from  hissing  for  the  bee 
in  the  land  of  Ashur.2  But  when  at  a  later  period, 
after  the  death  of  Sargon,  Judah  formed  the  center  of 
a  conspiracy  to  throw  off  the  Assyrian  yoke  he  bitterly 
scorned  the  rebellious  Judeans  who  "take  counsel,  but 
not  of  God,  and  pile  sin  upon  sin."3  The  greatest 
dishonor  to  the  politicians  of  the  popular  school  was 
the  necessity  of  paying  tribute  to  a  foreign  power, 
such  tribute  being  incompatible  with  the  "national 
honor,"  with  Israel's  claim  to  political  supremacy. 
Isaiah  coolly  faces  such  necessity  and  even  seems  to 
welcome  it,  as  long  as  it  insures  unrestricted  autono- 
mous self-government,  and  with  it  an  independent 
and  unhampered  spiritual  development.  Only  when 
Zion  herself  is  in  danger,  when  the  fountain  and  center 
of  the  nation's  existence  is  threatened,  only  then  is  the 
prophet  ready  to  fight  to  the  last.  When  in  701 
Sennacherib,  having  invaded  the  country,  demanded 
the  surrender  of  the  capital,  Isaiah  was  the  only  one 
who  offered  a  plain,  resolute  "No!"  "The  virgin,  the 
daughter  of  Zion,  despiseth  thee  and  laugheth  thee  to 
scorn,  the  daughter  of  Jerusalem  shaketh  her  head  at 
thee."4  "For  out  of  Jerusalem  shall  go  forth  a  rem- 
nant, and  they  that  escape  out  of  mount  Zion.'"' 

Mr-,  xxx,  IS. 
-II..  vii,  18. 
:,Ib.  xxx,  1. 

4I1>.  xxxvii,  22  =  11  Kings  xix,  21 . 
l-.iiah  xxxvii,  32  =  1 1  Kings  xix,  31. 


POLITICAL  IDEAL  OF  THE  PROPHETS  25 

Zion  and  the  holy  remnant  are  inseparable.  "And  it 
shall  come  to  pass  that  he  that  is  left  in  Zion  and  he 
that  remaineth  in  Jerusalem  shall  be  called  holy,  even 
everyone  that  is  written  among  the  living  in  Jeru- 
salem."1 

Isaiah  was  granted  an  associate  in  king  Hezekiah 
who,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  backslidings,  followed 
in  his  foot  steps  and  faithfully  endeavored  to  carry 
his  lofty  ideals  into  reality.  Although  a  vassal  of 
Assyria,  Hezekiah  accomplished  the  outer  and  inner 
consolidation  of  his  greatly  reduced  nation.  He 
abolished  the  local  sanctuaries  which  were  injurious 
to  the  central  position  of  Zion,2  and  he  induced  the 
tribes  of  the  North,  such  as  were  left  after  the  cata- 
strophe of  722,  to  acknowledge  the  supremacy  of  the 
national  sanctuary  in  Jerusalem.3  His  reign  was  a 
period  of  intense  spiritual  and  literary  activity,  the 
memory  of  which  still  reverberates  in  Rabbinic 
tradition.4  It  was  a  short  respite,  to  be  sure,  but  long 
enough  to  allow  the  formation  of  a  holy  remnant  which 
withstood  all  the  vicissitudes  that  were  now  in  store 
for  the  nation  and  subsequently  proved  the  salvation 
of  Israel. 


1Isaiah,  iv,  3. 

2II  Kings  xviii,  4-5. 

3II  Chronicles  xxx.  The  historicity  of  the  account  is 
proved  by  the  omission  of  Naphtali  (verse  10)  which  had  been 
exiled  by  Tiglat-Pileser  (II  Kings  xv,  29).  See    the     article 

"Hezekiah's  Great  Passover,"  infra  p.  59  et  seq. 

The  "men  of  Hezekiah"  are  credited,  among  other 
things,  with  the  redaction  of  a  part  of  the  Biblical  canon,  Baba 
Bathra  15a. 


26  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

The  influence  of  the  political  ideal  as  formualted 
and  applied  by  Isaiah  continued  to  be  a  working  force 
long  after  Isaiah,  and  manifested  itself  in  essentially 
the  same  form  and  intensity  in  all  the  subsequent 
prophets. 

Jeremiah,  the  lofty  patriot  whose  bowels  yearn  for 
his  people  when  his  soul  heareth  the  sound  of  the 
trumpet  of  war,1  coolly  counsels  submission  to 
Babylon,  which  was  ready  to  leave  Judah  its  auton- 
omy, and  passionately  warns  against  diplomatic  in- 
trigues and  transactions.  Zion  is  valuable  only  as 
the  seat  of  Israel's  spiritual  supremacy.  But  now 
that  she  cannot  show  even  a  single  man  that  executeth 
judgment  and  seeketh  the  truth,2  she  has  no  reason 
for  existence.  When  through  the  short-sighted  Ju- 
dean  politicians,  the  armies  of  Nebuchadnezzar  be- 
sieged Jerusalem,  Jeremiah — in  this  respect  different 
from  Isaiah — advised  the  temporary  surrender  of  the 
capital,3  but  only  the  temporary.  For  as  soon  as 
Zion  had  received  her  due  punishment  and  her  in- 
habitants were  led  captive  to  Babylon,  he  suddenly 
turned  from  a  prophet  of  scorn  to  a  prophet  of  con- 
solation, and  loudly  proclaimed  that  there  was  a  hope 
for  Judah's  future  when  the  children  would  return  to 
their  own  border  and  come  and  rejoice  on  the  height 
of  Zion.4  When  given  the  choice  between  the  court 
at  Babylon  whither  the  Chaldean  Napoleon  had 
generously  invited  him  and  the  miserable  remains  of 

1Jeremiah  iv,  19. 
2Ib.  v,  1. 

3Ib.  xxxiv,  xxxvii  ff. 
4Ib.  xxxi,  16,  11. 


POLITICAL  IDEAL  OF  THE  PROPHETS  27 

the  Judean  commonwealth  under  Gedaliah  at  Mizpah, 
he  preferred  the  latter.1  And  when,  after  the  murder 
of  Gedaliah,  the  Judean  remnant,  fearing  the  venge- 
ance of  the  Babylonian  sovereign,  intended  to  flee 
from  the  country,  he  passionately  exhorted  it  to 
cling  to  its  fatherland.2  He  was  dragged  by  force  to 
Egypt.  But  his  soul  remained  in  Zion,  which  he,  too. 
called  "the  habitation  of  righteousness,  the  mountain 
of  holiness,"3  "the  throne  of  the  Lord,"4  — of  the 
Lord  "who  exerciseth  loving  kindness,  judgment  and 
righteousness  in  the  earth."5 

The  prophet  Ezekiel  was  in  character  and  tempera- 
ment fundamentally  different  from  Jeremiah,  but  his 
conception  of  the  political  ideal  was  the  same.  Ezekiel 
lived  in  Babylonia  amidst  the  Judean  captivity, 
smarting  under  the  misfortune  of  being  in  a  strange 
land.  Yet  he  persistently  warned  the  king  in  Jerusa- 
lem against  engaging  in  politics  and  bitterly  denounced 
him  for  breaking  his  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  king  of 
Babylon,  who  was  ready  to  respect  Judah's  auton- 
omy.6 And  when  the  news  of  the  surrender  of  the 
capital  was  conveyed  to  the  prophet  by  a  courier,  he 
became  for  a  time  speechless  with  sorrow,7  and  he 
henceforward  devoted  himself  to  laying  out  the  plans 
of  the  future  Zion  as  the  seat  of  Israel's  theocracy.8 

xIb.  xl,  4-6. 
2Ib.  xlii,  10  ff. 
3Ib.  xxxi,  22. 

4Ib.   iii,   17.     Verses    14-18  are  an  independent   prophecy, 
but  may  well  be  genuine. 
5Ib.  ix,  23. 
6Ezekiel  xvii,  11  ff. 
7Ib.  xxxiii,  21-22. 
8Cf.  ib.  xl-xlviii. 


28  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

The  force  of  Isaiah's  political  doctrine  can  best  be 
seen  in  him  who — not  altogether  artificially — is  called 
Isaiah  the  Second.  The  Great  Unknown  Prophet 
lived  in  Babylon,  and  he  was  apparently  well  acquain- 
ted with  Babylonian  life  and  culture.  But  while  to 
the  old  Judean  diplomatists  who  believed  in  the  poli- 
tical supremacy  of  Israel  the  contact  with  Babylonia 
was  fatal,  because  it  convinced  them  of  the  inferiority 
and  therefore  the  uselessness  of  their  nation,  to  the 
inspired  seer  who  believed  in  the  religious  supremacy 
of  Israel  the  contact  with  Babylonia  was  life-giving, 
because  it  demonstrated  to  him  the  inferiority  of 
Babylonia.  The  "second  Isaiah"  untiringly  points 
to  the  idolatry,  the  rude  and  ridiculous  superstitions  of 
the  mighty  political  oppressors  of  Israel,  and  it  is 
deeply  significant  that  the  great  prophet  of  the 
Babylonian  exile  is  the  great  champion  of  a  Jewish 
mission  to  the  Gentiles,  and  that  out  of  the  darkness 
of  the  captivity  Israel  shone  forth  as  "a  light  to  the 
nations."1  But  this  light  could,  in  the  prophet's 
opinion,  only  radiate  from  Zion.  The  apostle  of 
Universalism  speaks  in  accents  of  sublime  affection 
of  poor,  tempest-stricken,  uncomforted  Zion,2  and  he 
passionately  preaches  the  return  of  the  exiles  to 
Jerusalem  and  to  the  holy  mount,  for  there,  and  only 
there,  can  Israel's  sanctuary  become  "a  house  of 
prayer  for  all  the  nations.3 


1Cf.  Isaiah  xlii,  6,  xlix,  6,  li,  4  and  lx,  3. 
2Ib.  liv,  11. 
3Ib.  lvi,  7. 


POLITICAL  IDEAL  OF  THE  PROPHETS  29 

A  famous  philosopher  has  formulated  the  mystery 
of  human  existence  in  the  words:  Cogito,  ergo  sum, 
"I  think,  therefore  I  am."  The  secret  of  national 
existence  may,  in  a  similar  manner,  be  expressed  in 
the  formula:  "I  hope,  therefore  I  am."  A  nation, 
which  is  not  subject  to  physical  death,  lives  as  long 
as  it  hopes,  as  long  as  it  has  something  to  live  for. 
Th,  Judean  exiles  in  Babylonia  who  complained  to 
Ezekiel:  "Our  bones  are  dried  up,  our  hope  is  lost," 
were  soon  lost  themselves  and  disappeared.  But  those 
who,  taught  by  the  scribes  and  cheered  by  the 
prophets,  continued  to  hope,  survived.  Face  to  face 
with  their  conquerors,  who  at  first  had  made  them  feel 
their  inferiority  and  with  it  the  purposelessness  of 
their  existence,  the  Judean  captives,  realizing  the 
spiritual  character  of  their  supremacy,  became  con- 
scious of  their  immesaurable  superiority  over  their 
oppressors  and  the  tremendous  task  they  had  to 
live  for.  Their  eyes  were  opened  and  they  suddenly 
perceived  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth.1  But  this 
new  earth  to  them  was  their  old  land,  and  the  new 
heaven  was  the  sky  that  shone  over  Judah.  As  soon 
as  an  opportunity  presented  itself,  a  considerable 
portion  of  the  exiles,2  carrying  with  them  the  gifts  and 
the  ardent  wishes  of  those  that  remained  behind,3 
started  on  their  way  home,  filling  their  mouth  with 

Hb.  lxv,  17. 

2On  the  probable  percentage  of  those  that  returned,  see 
the  article  "Were  Our  Ancestors  Capable  of  Self  Government?" 
Infra,  p .  . 

3Ezra  i,  6. 


30  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

laughter  and  their  tongue  with  rejoicing.1  They 
took  up  the  historic  thread  where  it  had  been  dropped. 
Under  the  leadership  of  a  scion  of  the  Davidic  dynasty, 
they  settled  in  and  around  the  metropolis,  and  set  out 
at  once  to  build  their  temple,  the  emblem  of  their 
religious  supremacy.  They  were  now  cured  of  their 
political  ambitions.  They  were  satisfied  to  be  a 
remnant — the  holy  remnant  which  Isaiah  had  foreseen 
in  his  vision — and  were  ready  to  return  to  the  Almighty 
God.  Zion  was  not  to  be  the  seat  of  political  grandeur 
but  a  "city  of  truth"  and  a  "holy  mount,"2  a  place 
where,  as  the  prophet  Zechariah3  simply  but  im- 
pressively puts  it,  "true  judgment  is  executed,  where 
everyone  shows  mercy  and  compassion  to  his  brother ; 
where  they  do  not  oppress  the  widow,  the  fatherless, 
the  stranger  and  the  poor,  and  where  none  imagines 
evil  against  his  brother  in  his  heart."  And  though 
Zion  may  no  more  be  the  beauty  of  the  beauties  of 
nations,  she  will  have  the  greater  attraction  of  truth, 
for  "many  people  and  mighty  nations  shall  come  to 
seek  the  Lord  of  hosts  in  Zion,  and  to  pray  before 
the  Lord."4 

When,  shortly  after  the  return  from  the  Baby- 
lonian captivity,  the  foundations  were  laid  for  the 
new  temple,  with  joyous  and  impressive  ceremonies, 
many  of  those  who  had  witnessed  the  splendor  of 
the  first  temple  burst  out  crying  at  the  insignificant 
dimensions  of  the  religious  center  of  the  new  com- 

1  Psalm  cxxvi,  2. 

2Zechariah  viii,  3. 

3Ibidem  vii,  9-10;  compare  viii,  16-17. 

4Ibidem  viii,  22. 


POLITICAL  IDEAL  OF  THE  PROPHETS  31 

munity.1  These  disappointed  veterans,  who  despised 
"the  day  of  small  things,"2  listened  eagerly  to 
Haggai,  who  comforted  them  with  the  promise  that 
"the  glory  of  this  latter  house  shall  be  greater  than  of 
the  former.3  But  Zechariah  found  sublime  words 
for  a  sublime  thought  when  he  exclaimed:  "This  is 
the  word  of  the  Lord  unto  Zerubbabel  saying:  'Not 
by  might  nor  by  power  but  by  my  spirit,  saith  the 
Lord  of  hosts.'  "4  This  appeal  to  spirituality  uttered 
on  the  newly  recovered  soil  of  Zion  and  reverberating 
with  the  issues  of  a  rejuvenated  national  existence  is 
the  shortest  and  noblest  formulation  of  the  political 
ideal  of  the  prophets. 

"With  the  death  of  Haggai,  Zechariah  and  Malachi," 
so  our  Rabbis  declare,5  "the  holy  spirit  departed  from 
Israel."  Modern  critics,  from  a  diametrically  oppo- 
site point  of  view,  draw  a  similar  line  of  demarcation 
and  speak  of  the  period  following  that  of  the  prophets 
sneeringly  as  the  "genesis  of  Judaism."6  But  this 
demarcation  is  unjust  as  well  as  unfounded.  For  the 
scribes  were  the  faithful  followers  of  the  prophets  and 
Ezra  was  the  disciple  of  Isaiah.  The  distance  that 
separates  them  is  the  distance  between  the  high- 
soaring,  radiant  ideal  and  sordid,  unyielding  reality. 
The  scribes  made  earnest  with  the  postulate  of  Israel's 


JEzra  iii,  12-13;  compare  Haggai  ii,  3. 
2Zechariah  iv,  10. 
3ii,  9. 
4iv,  6. 

5Yoma  9b,  and  elsewhere. 

6Compare,  e.  g.,  the  title  of  Eduard  Meyer's     well-known 
book,  die  Entstehung  des  Judentums.     Halle,  1896. 


32  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

religious  supremacy,  as  promulgated  by  the  prophets. 
The  Jews  of  the  post-exilic  age  were  only  a  weak, 
insignificant  remnant,  surrounded  by  dangerous  foes, 
and  by  still  more  dangerous  friends,  and  absorption 
stared  them  in  the  face.  They  did  not  wish  to  be 
dissolved;  they  were  not  fascinated  by  the  prospect, 
which  seemed  so  attractive  to  rising  Christianity,  to 
become  "the  salt  of  the  earth"  which  in  the  end  is 
bound  to  lose  its  saltness.1  They  wanted  to  pre- 
serve their  identity  and  to  benefit  humanity  rather 
as  an  "ever-flowing  spring  whose  waters  fail  not."2 
Their  only  escape  from  extinction  lay  in  isolation,  and 
they  were  ready  to  pay  the  price.  And  when  on  the 
twentieth  of  Kislev  458,  the  people,  shivering  from 
cold  and  excitement,  gathered  on  the  street  around 
Ezra  and  took  a  vow  to  send  away  their  foreign 
wives  and  the  children  born  from  them,  and  to 
separate  themselves  from  the  peoples  of  the  earth,3 
the  political  ideal  of  the  prophets  achieved  its  final 
and  lasting  triumph. 

There  are  people,  and  people  in  our  own  midst, 
who,  with  an  air  of  unapproachable  superiority,  are 
loud  in  their  denunciation  of  the  narrow-mindedness 
and  cruelty  of  this  action.  These  censors  of  morals 
would  sing  the  praises  of  those  who  risk  their  lives 
in  warfare  to  gain  a  strip  of  land  or  to  satisfy  the 
whim  of  a  ruler,  and  they  go  into  raptures  over  the 
herosim  of  the   four  hundred  Spartans  who  fell  at 


xCf.  Matthew  v,  13;  Mark  ix,  50;  Luke  xiv,  34. 
2Isaiah  lviii,  11. 
3  Ezra  x. 


POLITICAL  IDEAL  OF  THE  PROPHETS  33 

Thermopylae,  "faithful  to  the  laws  of  their  country." 
But  those  who  gathered  around  Ezra  and,  faithful 
to  the  laws  of  their  country,  their  God  and  their 
people,  sacrificed  not  their  lives,  but  their  lives' 
happiness,  and  disrupted  the  most  sacred  and  most 
tender  bonds  of  the  human  heart  to  save  their  nation 
from  death  and  its  ideal  from  extinction,  can  lay 
claim  to  far  greater  herosim.  And  were  modern 
mankind,  among  them  our  own  people,  less  swayed 
by  pagan  standards  and  ideals,  they  would  venerate 
the  memory  of  Ezra  and  his  followers,  who,  by  an 
unparalleled  sacrifice,  preserved  the  message  of  the 
prophets  and  succeeded  to  carry  it  into  the  life  of 
humanity. 


Twenty-five  centuries  have  passed  since  the 
political  ideal  of  the  prophets  was  put  to  test  in  the 
Babylonian  captivity  and  carried  to  victory  by  the 
returned  exiles  on  the  reconquered  mount  of  Zion. 
And  now  their  late  descendants,  the  sons  of  the  Golus, 
are  confronted  by  similar  dangers  and  difficulties. 
There  are  those  among  us  who  exclaim:  "Our 
bones  are  dried  up,  our  hope  is  lost,"  and  they  long  to 
become  like  the  heathen,  the  nations  of  the  earth. 
There  are  others,  again,  who  still  cling  to  the  belief 
that  there  is  a  hope  for  the  future  when  the  children 
will  return  to  their  border.  But  the  wheel  of  history 
has  brought  on  the  scene  two  new  factions  which  our 
ancestors  knew  not.  It  has  been  left  to  our  age  of 
strict  science  and  cold  materialism  to  evolve  a  concep- 
tion of  Israel  which  detaches  it  from  its  soil  and  turns 


34  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

it  into  a  spirit  without  a  body.  On  the  other  hand, 
even  those  who  continue  to  hope  look  upon  Zion  as 
the  material  center  of  our  people,  as  its  refuge  from 
poverty  and  distress,  and  the  glorious  embodiment 
of  its  economic  and  political  grandeur.  The  former 
hope  to  preserve  the  Jewish  spirit  without  Zion,  the 
latter  would  save  Zion  even  without  the  Jewish 
spirit.  But  those  of  us  who  still  cherish  the  memory 
of  the  prophets  and  pin  their  faith  to  their  ideals 
see  in  Zion  above  all  the  consummation  of  our  spiritual 
strivings.  To  them  Zion  does  not  spell  great 
numbers  and  vast  territories,  big  armies  and  large 
navies.  To  them  Zion  is  dear  as  the  spiritual  center 
of  our  people,  where,  independent  of  numbers  and 
dimensions,  the  Jewish  spirit — the  Jewish  spirit — 
can  develop  free  and  unhampered,  where  the  "holy 
remnant,"  conscious  of  its  mission,  lives  as  a  model 
and  a  blessing  to  the  rest  of  Israel  and  mankind, 
where  the  ancient  ideal  is  realized  in  a  modern  form: 
"For  out  of  Zion  shall  go  forth  the  Law,  and  the  word 
of  the  Lord  from  Jerusalem." 


II 

NATIONALISM  AND  ASSIMILATION  IN  BIBLE 
TIMES* 

THERE  are  many  ways  of  looking  at  the  Bible. 
One  of  them  which  strangely  enough  has  been 
largely  neglected  in  our  midst  is  the  outlook  upon  the 
Bible  as  the  record  of  the  Jewish  people  during  the 
formative  period  of  its  existence  and  of  the  great  issues 
which  were  fought  out  during  that  period,  with  results 
determining  the  entire  subsequent  development  of 
our  race.  One  of  these  issues  which  has  been  of 
fundamental  importance  to  Judaism  down  to  this 
day  may  be  expressed  in  modern  terms:  Nationalism 
versus  Assimilation. 

Without  any  attempt  at  a  strict  definition,  we  may 
formulate  Assimilation  as  the  tendency  of  a  people  to 
become  similar  to  the  other  nations,  and  Nationalism 
as  the  endeavor  to  retain  its  identity,  to  be 
different  from  the  other  nations.  The  former  is 
mostly  unconscious,  or  semi-conscious,  because  it 
means   yielding    to    nature;    the    latter    is    generally 


*From  a  lecture  delivered  at  the  Second  Annual  Conven- 
tion of  the  Intercollegiate  Menorah  Association  at  Philadelphia, 
on  December  28,  1915,  under  the  title "Problemsof  BibleTimesin 
Modern  Judaism."  The  following  is  merely  a  brief  outline  of 
the  lecture  prepared  after  its  delivery.  It  is  a  restatement  of  the 
views  expounded  in  the  preceding  article  from  a  slightly  different 
angle. 


36  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

conscious,  because  it  involves  resistance  to  nature. 
Hence,  apart  from  all  other  considerations,  National- 
ism is  morally  superior  to  Assimilation. 

The  struggle  between  these  two  principles  fills  the 
whole  biblical  period.  Assimilation  manifests  itself 
in  the  worship  of  the  Baal,  the  deity  of  the  environ- 
ment; Nationalism  finds  its  expression  in  the  doctrine 
of  the  selection  of  Israel,  as  a  nation  different  from, 
and  superior  to,  its  environment.  The  people  at  large 
constantly  relapses  into  the  easy  ways  of  assimilation; 
the  leaders  indefatigably  point  to  Israel's  stern  duty 
to  be  different  from  the  rest  of  the  world. 

The  magnitude  of  this  struggle  can  more  fully  be 
realized  today,  owing  to  the  great  archeological  dis- 
coveries which  have  revealed  the  high  state  of  civiliza- 
tion attained  by  Israel's  neighbors  during  the  biblical 
period.  It  was  a  tremendous  task  for  Israel,  a  nation 
of  peasants  and  but  lately  a  horde  of  nomads,  to  keep 
his  identity  within  an  environment  which,  from  the 
point  of  view  of  external  civilization,  was  far  superior 
to  him.  Yet  Israel  had  to  be  different  if  he  did  not 
wish  to  be  swallowed  by  the  environment.  Such  a 
fate,  indeed,  befell  Ephraim,  the  northern  part  of  the 
nation.  In  Judah  the  banner  of  Nationalism,  of 
Israel's  distinctiveness,  was  unfurled  by  Isaiah  and 
kept  aloft  by  the  later  prophets.  The  real  test  came 
in  586  when  the  Jews  were  exiled  to  Babylonia. 

There  were  many  Jews  at  that  time  who  fell  a  prey 
to  Assimilation.  They  became  "like  the  nations, 
like  the  families  of  the  lands" — and  disappeared.  A 
remnant,  however,  resolved  to  be  different  and  to  live. 
The  great   unknown   Prophet  of  the   Exile  preaches 


NATIONALISM  AND  ASSIMILATION  37 

more  fervently  than  any  of  his  predecessors  the  selec- 
tion of  Israel  and  his  duty  to  remain  distinct. 

The  practical  application  of  the  prophetic  doctrine 
of  Nationalism  is  found  in  the  second  Jewish  Common- 
wealth. The  builders  of  that  commonwealth  were 
resolved  to  be  different  from  the  other  nations.  When 
the  Samaritans  offered  to  assist  them  in  rebuilding 
the  temple  they  refused  to  accept  the  offer:  "it  is  not 
for  you  and  us  to  build  a  house  unto  our  Lord." 
The  final  triumph  of  this  prophetic  Nationalism  was 
consummated  when  at  the  suggestion  of  Ezra  and 
Nehemiah  the  Jews  declared  themselves  ready  to  make 
the  unparalleled  sacrifice  of  sending  away  their 
foreign  wives  and  the  children  born  of  them,  and  to 
become  Nibdalim,  "separated"  from  the  environment. 
Christian  scholars  speak  derisively  of  this  "Nibdal- 
ism,"  but  without  this  Nibdalism  Judaism  would  have 
disappeared  long  ago. 

This  Nibdalism,  however,  implies  that  even  our 
Nationalism  must  be  different  from  that  of  the  others. 
It  differs  in  two  fundamental  respects: 

(1)  Jewish  Nationalism  is  spiritual.  Israel's  ideal 
is  to  be  a  "kingdom  of  priests  and  a  holy  nation." 
The  Jewish  State  is  only  a  means  to  this  end.  The 
prophet  who  spoke  at  the  dedication  of  the  temple  of 
the  second  Jewish  Commonwealth,  a  fervent  nation- 
alist, declared:  "Not  by  might  nor  by  strength  but  by 
my  spirit." 

(2)  Jewish  Nationalism  is  universalistic.  It  is  not 
chauvinistic.  Israel's  selection  implies  that  it  serves 
humanity.  The  conception  of  Israel  as  the  Ebed 
Adonai,  "the  Servant  of  the  Lord,"  for  the  benefit  of 


38  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

mankind — the  conception  which  today  goes  by  the 
name  of  a  "Jewish  Mission" — is  a  product  of  the 
Babylonian  Exile.  The  great  nationalistic  prophet  of 
that  period  exclaims:  "My  house  shall  be  a  house  of 
prayer  for  all  the  nations."  Israel  can  only  benefit 
the  world  by  keeping  distinct.  Hence  the  favorite 
simile  of  this  prophet:  Israel  is  "a  light  unto  the 
nations."  A  light  radiates  into  space,  while  remain- 
ing distinct. 

The  same  great  struggle  between  Nationalism  and 
Assimilation  is  being  fought  out  today.  If  Israel  is 
to  survive,  he  must  have  the  courage  to  be  different, 
to  think  his  own  thoughts,  to  feel  his  own  feelings,  to 
live  his  own  life,  but  to  do  so,  not  from  any  narrow 
chauvinistic  motive,  but  with  the  lofty  conscious- 
ness that  only  in  this  way  does  he  fulfill  his  destiny — 
for  the  benefit  of  mankind. 


Ill 


WERE  OUR  ANCESTORS  CAPABLE  OF  SELF- 
GOVERNMENT?* 

NOTHING  is  so  revolting  in  modern  Jewish  life 
as  the  eagerness  with  which  the  Jews  of  to- 
day are  ready  to  adopt  the  opinions  and — what  is 
frequently  identical — the  prejudices  of  non-Jews  re- 
garding Jews  and  Judaism,  as  that  hideous  Jewish 
anti-Semitism  which  must  logically  end  in  open  or 
veiled  apostasy.  The  last  year-book  of  a  Jewish 
theological  association  contains  a  paper  by  a  Rabbi, 
entitled  "The  Significance  of  the  Bible  for  Reform 
Judaism  in  the  Light  of  Modern  Scientific  Research." 
In  this  paper,  in  which  some  of  the  most  offensive  and 
most  disputed  vagaries  of  non-Jewish  and  anti- 
Jewish  Bible  critics  are  boldly  set  forth  as  incontro- 
vertible truths,  the  following  sentences,  because  of 
their  immediate  bearing  on  a  great  Jewish  movement 
of  to-day,  are  apt  to  arrest  the  attention  of  the 
reader : 

The  history  of  Israel  and  Judah  is  in  the  main  one  of 
tribute  and  vassalage  to,  with  occasional  revolt  against, 
now  Tyre,  now  Syria,  now  Assyria,  now  Babylon.  It  is  on 
the  whole  a  gloomy  record  of  bad  government,  tyranny  and 
oppression,  such  as  has  been  characteristic  of  every  little 
Oriental  state  from  the  beginning  ot  history.  It  is  the  most 
incontrovertible  proof  that  Israel's  genius  does  not  lie  in 
the  field  of  self-government,  that  from  first  to  last  as  a 
nation  Israel  was  a  most  dismal  failure. 


*  Appeared  first  in  the  American  Hebrew  on  March  26,1909. 


40  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

The  notion  that  the  Jews  (or  the  Semites  in  general) 
were,  and  still  are,  incapable  of  self-government  has  so 
persistently  been  maintained  by  Aryan  scholars,  and 
has  with  such  nauseating  self-contempt  been  repeated 
by  Jews  that  it  is  high  time  to  approach  it  more 
closely  and  to  examine  it  "in  the  light  of  scientific 
research,"  which  is  perhaps  not  modern,  if  modern 
be  identical  with  sensational,  but  is  nevertheless  in 
accordance  with  the  facts. 

First  of  all  it  must  be  stated  that  the  initial  sentence 
in  the  above  quotation  is  a  gross — if  I  were  to  adopt 
the  tone  of  the  paper  I  would  say  a  malicious — 
exaggeration.  Tyre  has  nothing  to  do  in  this  connec- 
tion. Syria  occasionally  defeated  Israel,  but  Israel 
also  occasionally  defeated  Syria.  If  Syria  humbled 
Israel  under  Jehoahaz,  it  was  again  humbled  by  Israel 
under  his  successors  Jehoash  and  Jeroboam,  and  it 
formed  an  alliance  with  Israel  under  Pekah.  As  for 
Assyria  and  Babylon,  the  following  facts  may  speak 
for  themselves.  The  Kingdom  of  Judah  was  founded 
about  1020,  that  of  Israel  in  933.  But  the  decisive 
influence  of  Assyria  over  the  destinies  of  our  people 
did  not  begin  until  735,  when  Tiglath-Pileser  III  set 
his  foot  on  Israelitish  soil,  and  that  of  Babylon  over 
Judah  until  605  when  the  victory  of  Nebuchadnezzar 
at  the  battle  of  Carchemish  turned  Judah  unto  a 
Babylonian  dependency.  In  any  event  the  sway  of 
Assyria  and  Babylon  over  Israel  or  Judah  during  the 
period  of  their  existence  never  went  beyond  a  mone- 
tary exaction,  to  which  even  mighty  Egypt  and  the 
other  countries  of  Western  Asia  were  occasionally 
forced  to  submit,  and  which  did  not  in  the  slightest 


SELF-GOVERNMENT  41 

degree  interfere  with  their  autonomous  independence 
and  self-government.  The  question,  therefore,  whether 
our  ancestors  were  capable  of  self-government  can 
and  should  be  detached  from  their  foreign  relations 
to  the  great  military  powers  of  the  East. 

Now,  when  speaking  of  "our  ancestors,  a  people 
with  no  aptitude  for  government,"  our  author  cer- 
tainly does  not  refer  to  the  Kingdom  of  the  Ten 
Tribes.  There  are  Englishmen  who  proudly  proclaim 
that  they  are  the  descendants  of  the  ancient  Israelites. 
There  are  others  who  confer  this  distinction  upon  the 
Red  Indians,  but  I  have  yet  to  meet  a  Jew  who 
claims  descent  from  the  "haughty  drunkards  of 
Ephraim,"  and  I  am  sure  that  even  "modern  scien- 
tific research"  has  not  enabled  our  writer  to  save  this 
privilege  for  him.  Accordingly,  the  only  country 
with  which  we  have  to  deal  is  that  of  the  Judeans. 

What  then  are  the  facts  which  give  the  author  of 
our  paper  the  right  to  speak  with  such  sovereign 
contempt  of  the  inability  of  our  ancestors  to  take  care 
of  themselves?  Judah  existed  as  an  independent 
kingdom  (after  the  secession  of  the  Ten  Tribes)  from 
933  to  586.  During  the  entire  length  of  these  347 
years — a  term  which  ought  to  be  sufficient  as  a 
period  of  test  for  a  citizen  of  the  New  World — we  do 
not  detect  the  faintest  trace  of  a  single  civil  war.  In  the 
course  of  the  whole  period,  beginning  with  the  reign 
of  David  about  1000,  and  ending  with  the  destruction 
of  the  Kingdom  in  586,  we  do  not  hear  of  a  single 
change  of  dynasty,  nor  of  a  single  attempt  at  a  change  of 
dynasty.  The  only  exception,  that  of  Athaliah,  the 
daughter  of  Ahab,  confirms  the  rule.     For  she  was 


42  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

not  a  Judean,  but  an  Israelitish  princess;  she  usurped 
the  throne  ot  Judah,  in  violent  opposition  to  the 
Judean  national  sentiment,  and  was  overthrown  and 
killed  by  the  faithful  Judeans  after  an  illegitimate 
reign  of  six  years.  The  loyalty  of  the  Judean  nation 
to  its  reigning  house  is  overwhelmingly  illustrated  by 
the  fact,  unparalleled  in  the  history  of  mankind,  that 
twenty-five  hundred  years  after  its  extinction  the 
Davidic  dynasty  is  still  indissolubly  bound  up  with 
the  Messianic  aspirations  of  our  people.  Surely,  if 
self-restraint,  discipline,  respect  for  authority  and  its 
representatives  be  characteristic  of  the  ability  of 
self-government,  then  the  genius  of  our  ancestors, 
against  the  assertion  of  our  author,  certainly  did  lie 
"in  the  field  of  self-government." 

It  is  true,  Judah  never  equalled,  or  intended  to 
equal,  the  great  military  powers  of  Western  Asia — 
although,  on  the  other  hand,  it  was  never  as  small  as 
any  of  the  celebrated  republics  of  ancient  Greece. 
But  the  reason  for  its  limited  expansion  was  not  be- 
cause, as  the  author  so  charitably  puts  it,  "from  first 
to  last  as  a  nation  Israel  was  a  most  dismal  failure," 
but  jtst  because  as  a  nation  in  the  true  sense  of  the 
word,  i.  e.,  as  a  community  of  common  origin  and 
common  development,  and  as  a  nation  only,  did  our 
ancestors  care  to  perpetuate  their  political  existence. 
It  was  centuries  later  when  the  marshi'e  brith,  "such 
as  did  wickedly  against  the  covenant"  (Daniel  xi,  32), 
began  to  undermine  the  national  foundations  of  the 
Jewish  commonwealth,  and  an  anti-national  dynasty 
with  un-Jewish  imperialistic  tendencies  usurped  the 
throne  of  David,  that  the  Jewish  commonwealth 
actually  became  "a  most  dismal  failure." 


SELF-GOVERNMENT  43 

It  is  also  true  that  the  prophets  frequently  castigate 
the  social  injustice,  the  "bad  government,  tyranny 
and  oppression"  of  the  leading  classes  of  Judah.  But 
if  we  are  to  take  the  prophets  literally,  then  our  an- 
cestors were  just  as  completely  devoid  of  a  religious 
genius,  which  our  author  is  rightly  anxious  to  empha- 
size, as  of  the  ability  of  self-government.  For  the 
prophets  assuredly  were  not  less  fierce  in  denouncing 
Israel's  irreligion  than  they  were  in  lashing  its  "bad 
government."  The  fact  of  the  matter  is  that  the 
ideals  of  the  prophets  were,  as  our  author  himself  puts 
it,  "so  immeasurably  in  advance  of  the  standards  and 
capacities  of  their  age  and  of  succeeding  ages"  that 
they  were  bound  to  find  fault  with  reality.  And  with 
all  our  devotion  to  this  great  republic  of  ours,  whose 
genius,  as  our  author  will  surely  not  deny,  does  lie 
in  "the  field  of  self-government,"  we  may  safely 
assume  that,  were  one  of  the  old  prophets  to  rise  from 
his  grave  and  to  be  permitted  to  speak  his  mind — 
.without  being  lynched — he  would  scarcely  be  more 
complimentary  to  us  than  he  was  to  our  unfortunate 
ancestors. 

This  platitude  of  the  Jews'  inability  to  govern 
themselves  is  followed  by  another,  closely  related  to 
it  and  equally  justified,  ascribing  to  our  ancestors  a 
lack  of  patriotism.  Towards  Assyria  or  Babylon, 
perchance?  Heaven  forbid!  For  our  author,  who 
is  probably  first  American  and  then  Jew,  would 
consider  such  an  attitude  an  unpardonable  crime. 
The  lack  of  patriotism  charged  against  our  ancestors 
is  "only"  towards  Palestine,  their  own  native  land: 

And  finally — says  the  writer — we  see  Jerusalem  captured 
and  Judah  led  captive  to  Babylon,  at  first  to  mourn,  but 


44  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

soon  to  recover  from  its  grief,  and  so  quickly  feel  itself  at 
home  in  this  new  land  that  later,  when  opportunity  offered 
to  return  to  the  fatherland,  only  the  smallest  fraction 
availed  themselves  thereof.  Even  then,  twenty-five  hundred 
years  ago,  the  unifying  and  inspiring  force  in  Judaism  was 
not  the  land  where  Israel  dwelt,  nor  the  possession  of  autono- 
mous government. 

This  supposition  that  our  ancestors  at  the  time  of 
the  Babylonian  captivity  were  devoid  of  that  natural 
sentiment  towards  their  native  land  which  is  to  be 
found  even  among  savages  is  a  gross  fallacy,  not  to  use 
a  shorter  and  uglier  word.  Seldom  have  facts  of 
history  been  so  unscrupulously  distorted,  as  is  done 
by  our  author  and  other  like-minded  historians,  to 
suit  a  shallow  flimsy  theory.  When  the  Judeans 
were  led  captive  to  Babylon  for  the  first  time  under 
Jehojachin  (in  597)  they  numbered  8.0001,  or  10,000.2 
The  number  of  exiles  carried  off  to  Babylonia  in  586 
cannot  be  determined  with  certainty.  According  to 
Stade,  it  was  smaller  than  that  of  the  first  captivity. 
According  to  others3,  it  was  "considerably  larger."4. 
To  be  perfectly  fair,  let  us  adopt  the  latter  view  and 
assume  as  a  rough  guess  that  the  second  deportation 
was  three  times  as  large  as  the  first.  Let  us  further 
suppose  that  in  the  course  of  the  half  century  of  the 
Babylonian     captivity     the     Jewish     population     in 


1  II  Kings  xxiv,  16. 

2  Ibidem,  verse  14.  Compare  Stade  in  Zeitschrift  fur  alt- 
testamentliche  Wissenschaft,  iv,  271  ff. 

3  See  Buhl,  Die  socialen  Verhaeltenisse  de  Israeliten,  p.  53. 

4  Compare  also,  if  our  author  will  pardon  us  for  quoting  a 
Jewish  authority,  Graetz'  History  of  the  Jews,  German  edition, 
Volume  II,  second  half,  p.  377  ff. 


SELF-GOVERNMENT  45 

Babylon  doubled  its  numbers— truly  a  fair  percentage 
of  natural  increase.  How  many  Jews  were  then  in 
Babylon,  "when  opportunity  offered  to  return  to 
the  fatherland?"  Not  quite  100,000.  Now  what 
was  the  "smallest  fraction"  that  "availed  themselves 
thereof?"  42,360  with  7,337  servants  and  200 
(or  245)  singers,1 — -not  to  mention  those  who  followed 
later  under  Ezra,2 — in  other  words,  more  than  one- 
half!  To  be  still  fairer,  and  to  provide  for  any  pos- 
sible mistake  in  the  above  calculations,  let  us  grant 
that  those  who  returned  were  less  than  half;  they 
certainly  formed  a  very  considerable  percentage  of 
the  Jewish  population  in  Babylon.  When  we  re- 
member that  the  conditions  in  which  the  exiles  lived 
were  exceedingly  favorable,  that  they  were  kindly 
and  considerately  treated  by  the  Babylonian,  and 
later  on  by  the  Persian  rulers,  that  their  financial 
circumstances  in  prosperous  Babylonia  were  far 
superior  to  those  in  desolate  Palestine,  when  we  take 
into  consideration  the  perils  of  the  journey  which  took 
no  less  than  four  months,3  then  we  cannot  but  marvel 
at  the  unparalleled  patriotism  of  our  ancestors,  and 
we  must  truthfully  acknowledge  that  it  was  the  land 
which  was  "the  unifying  and  inspiring  force  in 
Judaism."  Surely,  no  other  nation  of  antiquity  or 
of  modern  times  has  ever  accomplished  the  task  of 


1  Ezra  ii,  64;  Nehemiah  vii,  66. 

2  Ezra,  Chapter  viii. 

3  Ezra  vii,  9. 


46  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

returning  to  its  fatherland  under  the  same  or  under 
similar  conditions.1 

To  be  sure,  already  then,  "twenty-five  hundred 
years  ago,"  there  were  Jews  in  Babylon  who  in  the 
comfort  and  prosperity  of  the  strange  land  "forsook 
the  Lord  and  forgot  His  holy  mount"2,  who  con- 
temptuously sneered  at  these  patriotic  enthusiasts,  and 
noisily  shouted:  "we  will  be  as  the  Gentiles,  as  the 
families  of  the  lands."3  But  it  was  they  who  were 
the  "smallest  fraction,"  whereas  the  bulk  of  Baby- 
lonian Jewry  "lifted  up  their  soul  to  return,"4  and 
those  of  them  who  were  unable  to  fulfil  their  heart's 
desire  readily  and  liberally  assisted  their  more 
fortunate  brethren.5  Nay,  some  of  these  Babylonian 
Jews  showed  themselves  so  little  "spiritual"  that  they 
manifested  their  enthusiasm  over  the  Return  by 
donating  a  diadem  for  the  rulers  of  the  new  common- 
wealth.6 

As  for  the  prophets,  over  whom  the  writer  of  our 
paper  and  his  associates  seem  to  have  assumed  a 
monopoly,  whose  teachings  and  ideals,  if  we  are  to 
believe  his  assertions,  we  have  come  to  appreciate 
only  today   through   the   instrumentality  of  Reform 

1  Psalm  cxxvi  clearly  shows  that  already  at  the  time  of  the 
Return  the  contemporaries  were  fully  conscious  of  the  uniqueness 
of  the  event.  The  Jews  looked  upon  it  as  a  dream  (verse  I), 
whereas  the  heathen  declared  ,"The  Lord  hath  done  great  things 
for  them."  (verse  2). 

2Isaiah  lxv,  11. 

3Ezekiel  xx,  32. 

4Compare  Jeremiah  xxii,  27. 

5Ezra  i,  6. 

6Compare  Zechariah  vi,  1 1 . 


SELF-GOVERNMENT  47 

Judaism,  disconcerting  as  it  may  appear  to  our  author, 
it  is  nevertheless  a  fact  that  the  prophets  were  just  as 
narrow-minded  as  the  "Jews"  Ezra  and  Nehemiah 
and,  like  them,  expected  Israel's— and  mankind's — 
salvation  to  come  from  a  "small  corner  of  Western 
Asia."  It  was  the  great  Isaiah  who  with  unrivalled 
patriotism  formulated  the  belief  in  the  inviolability 
of  Zion.  It  was  Jeremiah  who  desperately  clung  to 
the  last  shreds  of  autonomous  government  under 
Gedaliah  and,  in  face  of  supreme  danger,  passionately 
exhorted  the  Judean  remnant  to  hold  fast  to  their 
commonwealth.  It  was  Ezekiel  who  was  so  wrapped 
up  in  the  hope  of  the  Return  that  he  elaborated  the 
constitution  of  the  future  land  and  laid  down  the 
plans  of  the  future  temple  with  a  precision  and  wealth 
of  detail  which  might  excite  the  envy  of  professional 
statesmen  and  architects.  It  was  the  great  Anony- 
mous, the  inspired  champion  of  the  lofty  Jewish 
ideal,  to  which  the  Reform  Jews  have  given  the 
Christian  name  of  a  Jewish  Mission,  who  with  burn- 
ing enthusiasm  and  thrilling  tenderness  exhorted  and 
implored  the  exiles  to  comfort  the  afflicted  widow  of 
Zion.  It  was  Haggai,  Zechariah  and  Malachi,  the 
last  of  Israel's  prophets,  who  devoted  all  their  energy 
and  eloquence  to  the  establishment  and  strengthening 
of  the  new  commonwealth.  Surely,  were  it  to  be 
admitted,  as  is  claimed  by  our  author,  that  the  only 
"true  followers"  of  the  prophets  of  Israel  are  to  be 
found  among  the  Reform  Jews,  were  the  prophets 
to  them  more  than  an  empty  phrase  and  a  convenient 
subterfuge  from  the  burdens  of  the  Law,  then  they 
ought  to  be  among  the  first  to  work  for  "the  possession 


48  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

of  an  autonomous  government"  and  for  the  realization 
of  the  prophetic  ideal  that  "the  Law  shall  go  forth 
out  of  Zion  and  the  Word  of  the  Lord  from  Jerusalem." 
We  have  confined  ourselves  to  two  passages  in  the 
paper  under  discussion  because  of  their  tendency  to 
discredit  a  great  Jewish  movement  of  the  present 
day,  a  tendency  which — as  is  recorded  in  the  same 
year-book — was  unmistakably  confirmed  by  the 
"philistine-like  outburst"  of  applause  from  the  audi- 
ence and  by  the  protests  of  two  of  the  author's  col- 
leagues. But  this  does  not  imply  that  the  rest  of  the 
paper  stands  on  a  higher  level.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
it  is  only  a  rehash  of  all  that  is  most  offensive  to 
Jewish  sentiment  and  Jewish  dignity  in  "modern 
scientific  research,"  and  its  only  originality  consists 
in  the  uncharitable  and  irreverent  tone  which  is 
unusual  even  among  the  "high"  and  "highest" 
critics.  As  far  as  the  contents  of  the  paper  are 
concerned,  they  show  our  utter  submissiveness  and 
servility  in  the  face  of  non- Jewish  opinion.  As  for 
the  form,  it  is  a  matter  of  taste  and — de  gustibus  non 
est  dispntandum .  But  perhaps  it  is  not  inopportune 
to  recall  the  words  of  one  who  can  hardly  be  accused 
of  orthodox  leanings  or  of  connivance  at  conservative 
tendencies.  It  is  Friedrich  Nietzsche,  the  great 
revolutionizer  of  all  standards  and  values,  who  has 
penned  the  following  words — discourteous,  to  be  sure, 
but  truthful — which  have  a  direct  bearing  on  the 
subject  under  discussion:1 — 

The  manner — quoth  Nietzsche — in  which  on  the  whole  the 
reverence  for  the  Bible  has  been  maintained  in  Europe  is 
perhaps  the  finest  bit  of  discipline  and  refinement  which 

1Jenseits  von  Gut  und  Boese,  No.  263. 


SELF-GOVERNMENT  49 


Europe  owes  to  Christianity:  such  books  of  depth  and  ulti- 
mate significance  need  for  their  protection  an  external 
tyranny  of  authority  in  order  to  gain  those  thousands  of 
years  of  permanence  which  are  necessary  to  draw  from  them 
as  well  as  to  divine  their  last  meaning.  Much  is  gained 
when  the  big  crowd  (the  Shallow  and  Quick-boweled  of  all 
sorts)  are  at  last  trained  to  feel  that  they  have  no  right  to 
finger  everything;  that  there  are  sacred  experiences  before 
which  they  have  to  put  off  their  shoes  and  hold  back  their 
filthy  hands, — it  is,  as  it  were,  their  highest  elevation  to 
humanity.  As  for  the  so-called  educated,  the  adepts  of 
"modern  ideas,"  nothing  is  perhaps  more  disgusting  than 
their  lack  of  shame,  their  convenient  impudence  of  eye  and 
hand  with  which  they  touch,  lick  and  finger  everything. 


IV 
GOD'S  PROMISE  TO  ABRAHAM* 

GOD'S  promise  to  Abraham,  recorded  in  the 
fifteenth  chapter  of  the  Book  of  Genesis,  stands 
at  the  threshold  of  Jewish  history.  It  transforms 
Abram  the  individual  into  Abraham,  "the  father  of 
many  nations,"  but  above  all  into  the  patriarch  of  the 
Jewish  nation.  In  form  it  addresses  itself  to  Abra- 
ham, but  its  contents  point  to  the  birth  and  subse- 
quent destinies  of  the  Jewish  race.  The  message  of 
our  chapter  is  composed  of  two  parts  logically  linked 
with  each  other.  The  one  promises  Abraham  a 
numerous  seed,  the  other  promises  his  seed  a  land  of 
its  own:  "Look  now  toward  heaven,  and  tell  the  stars 
...  So  shall  thy  seed  be"  (v.  5).  "Unto  thy  seed 
have  I  given  this  land"  (v.  18). 

And  so  precious  does  the  possession  of  a  home 
appear  in  the  eyes  of  the  patriarch,  who  had  had  to 
leave  his  own  home,  that  the  prospect  of  his  seed 
inheriting  the  land  where  he  himself,  with  all  his 
wealth  and  influence,  is  but  a  stranger  and  wanderer, 
quite  overwhelms  him.  While  at  the  promise — 
infinitely  more  miraculous — of  a  numerous  seed  he 
believes  in  the  Lord,  and  it  is  counted  to  him  for 
righteousness,  at  the  promise  of  an  independent  soil 
he  anxiously  inquires,   "Whereby  shall   I  know  that 


*Published   in   the   Sunday  School   Times  on   February   9, 
1907,  as  part  of  the  International  Bible  Lessons  on  Genesis  xv. 


52  PAST  AND  PRESENT 


I  shall  inherit  it?"  (v.  8),  and  he  is  relieved  of  his 
anxiety  only  when  God  confirms  his  promise  by  a 
solemn  covenant. 

However,  the  most  precious  gifts  are  not  those 
which  are  easily  acquired.  Earthly  possessions  are 
acquired,  appreciated  when  after  hard  struggle  and 
bitter  experience.  The  Jewish  nation  was  not  to 
receive  the  Promised  Land  as  a  ready  gift.  While 
Nature  around  him  darkens,  the  patriarch,  seized 
with  the  horror  of  great  darkness,  hears  in  his  sleep 
the  awe-inspiring  words,  "Know  of  a  surety  that  thy 
seed  shall  be  a  stranger  in  a  land  that  is  not  theirs, 
and  shall  serve  them;  and  they  shall  afflict  them  four 
hundred  years"  (v.  13).  Only  after  having  been 
tested  in  this  bitter  trial,  after  having  drained  the  cup 
of  homelessness,  the  Jewish  nation  would  be  worthy 
to  acquire  and  able  to  appreciate  the  blessing  of  a 
home. 

The  announcement  of  Israel's  trial,  which  is  inter- 
woven with  God's  promise,  undoubtedly  refers  to 
Israel's  suffering  in  the  Egyptian  bondage,  and  it  has 
been  calculated  that  the  space  between  the  birth  of 
Isaac,  when  the  promise  first  began  to  be  realized, 
and  the  Exodus  from  Egypt  amounts  exactly  to 
four  hundred  years.  But  our  ancient  rabbis  noticed 
that  this  prediction  was  to  become  symbolic  of  the 
whole  Jewish  history,  that  it  typified  the  succession 
of  bondages  in  which  Israel  was  held  in  all  subsequent 
periods. 

It  typifies  as  well  the  position  of  the  Jewish  people 
at  the  present  time.  For  the  Jew  of  today,  living  in 
an    age   which   prides   itself   upon   its   enlightenment 


GOD'S  PROMISE  TO  ABRAHAM  53 

and  civilization,  which  has  proclaimed  as  its  motto 
the  greatest  happiness  of  the  greatest  number,  which 
concentrates  its  energy  on  overbridging  distances, 
and  thus  bringing  man  nearer  to  man, — even  the  Jew 
of  to-day,  hears,  while  seized  with  the  horror  of  great 
darkness,  the  fearful  cry,  "Know  of  a  surety  that  thy 
seed  shall  be  a  stranger  in  a  land  that  is  not  theirs, 
and  shall  serve  them;  and  they  shall  afflict  them." 
The  overwhelming  majority  of  the  Jewish  nation, 
crowded  in  Russia,  Roumania,  Galicia,  and  in  some 
countries  of  the  East,  are  treated  with  a  refinement 
of  cruelty  which  would  outrage  the  conscience  of 
humanity  were  it  accorded  to  beasts.  Deprived  of  the 
most  elementary  human  rights,  regarded  as  outcasts 
and  outlaws,  made  the  lightning-conductors  for  the 
brutal  passions  of  brutal  mobs,  a  majority  of  our  race, 
numbering  nearly  eight  millions,  with  ancient  tra- 
ditions and  with  powerful  abilities,  are  being  doomed 
before  the  eyes  of  the  world  to  spiritual  and  physical 
extermination.  A  minority  of  our  people  in  some 
countries  of  western  Europe,  having  won  their 
emancipation  through  infinite  struggles  and  notable 
achievements,  have  to  fight  bitterly  for  rights  solemnly 
vouchsafed  to  them  by  the  constitution  of  the  land. 
In  some  countries  they  afflict  them  with  pogroms  and 
pales  of  settlement,  in  others  they  afflict  them  with 
political  and  social  restrictions,  and  everywhere  our 
people,  who  as  Roman  colonists  settled  in  Europe 
earlier  than  the  nations  now  ruling  it,  are  made  to 
feel  the  stinging  pain  of  being  in  a  land  that  is  not 
theirs. 


54  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

Every  rule,  of  course,  allows  of  exceptions  and  the 
somber  picture  is  not  devoid  of  bright  spots.  It 
would  be  unjust  and  ungrateful  on  the  part  of  the 
Jew  to  deny  or  to  conceal  that,  apart  from  a  few 
European  countries  with  an  insignificantly  small 
Jewish  population,  the  Jews  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  lands 
enjoy  a  better  lot.  The  250,000  Jews  of  the  British 
Empire  are  not  only  tolerated,  but  respected.  As 
for  this  country,  there  is  no  right-minded  Jew  in  any 
part  of  the  world  who  does  not  fondly  and  affection- 
ately think  of  this  great  republic,  which  has  given 
shelter  to  thousands  of  his  persecuted  co-religionists, 
which  has  generously  heeded  the  cry  addressed  to  it 
in  the  words  of  the  prophet:  "Hide  the  outcast; 
betray  not  the  fugitive.  Let  mine  outcasts  dwell 
with  thee;  be  thou  a  covert  to  them  from  the  face  of 
the  destroyer"  (Isa.  xvi,  3,  4).  But  these  few  spots 
of  brightness  only  deepen  the  darkness  of  the  rest  of 
the  picture.  The  position  of  the  Jewish  people  as  a 
whole  is  sad  and  somber  to  the  extreme,  and  is  aptly 
typified  by  the  threat  involved  in  God's  promise  to  the 
Jewish  patriarch. 

So  much  for  the  material  position  of  the  Jews. 
But  our  nation  early  realized  the  truth  that  "man 
doth  not  live  by  bread  alone"  (Deut.  viii,  3).  It  is 
the  cruel  irony  of  fate  that  our  people,  which  as  a 
whole  is  the  poorest  of  all  the  nations  of  the  earth, 
is  known  to  the  outside  world  chiefly  through  its 
financiers,  while  its  spiritual  strivings,  affecting  it 
more  deeply  than  material  interests,  remain  entirely 
unknown.  The  best  and  noblest  of  our  nation  are 
even  more  deeply  concerned  about  the  spiritual  fate 


GOD'S  PROMISE  TO  ABRAHAM  55 

of  the  Jews  than  about  their  material  misery.  The 
Jewish  nation,  represented  by  its  best  elements, 
keenly  suffers  from  longings  that  are  not  satisfied 
and  hopes  that  are  not  fulfilled.  They  are  conscious 
of  the  great  spiritual  powers  still  latent  in  our  people. 
They  feel  that  the  Jewish  nation  is  still  capable  of 
adding  an  independent  current  to  the  stream  of 
human  civilization.  They  fondly  think  of  the  pro- 
phetic promise  that  Israel  should  become  a  light  unto 
the  nations,  and  they  sadly  realize  that  the  light  still 
burning  in  its  own  midst  is  constantly  dimmed  by 
hatred  and  persecution.  Our  nation  is  anxious  to 
hew  out  its  own  path  for  its  national  spirit  and  to 
develop  it  on  the  basis  of  its  own  glorious  traditions. 
But  hostile  surroundings  check  its  development,  and, 
living  for  the  most  part  in  a  land  that  is  not  theirs, 
the  Jews  are  forced  into  a  spirit  that  is  not  theirs. 
This  spiritual  anxiety  is  not  so  palpable  as  is  the 
material  discomfort  of  our  nation,  but  it  is  no  less 
real  and  painful. 

The  thinking  Jew  of  today,  thus  gravely  concerned 
about  the  material  and  spiritual  disabilities  of  his 
race,  looks  with  feelings  of  hope  and  relief  toward 
God's  promise  to  Abraham:  "Unto  thy  seed  have  I 
given  this  land."  He  realizes  that  the  Jews  still 
have  a  land  that  is  theirs,  theirs  by  right  of  Divine 
promise  and  historical  tradition,  and  he  is  convinced 
that,  this  promise  once  fulfilled,  the  Jewish  problem 
would  find  a  final  and  satisfactory  solution.  It  is 
this  conviction  which  has  found  its  expression  in  the 
movement  known  as  Zionism.  It  has  crystallized  the 
deep,  though  dim,  yearnings  and  hopes  of  the  Jewish 


56  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

nation  since  its  dispersion  into  the  sharply  defined 
resolution  adopted  as  the  fundamental  principle  of  the 
movement  by  the  first  Zionist  Congress  in  Basle  in 
1897:  "Zionism  aims  at  establishing  a  publicly  secured 
and  legally  assured  home  in  Palestine."  The  Zionists 
who  now  live  in  countries  where  they  are  treated  like 
citizens  are  by,  no  means  unmindful  of  their  duties 
toward  the  lands  of  their  birth  or  abode.  Together 
with  all  the  Jews  they  scrupulously  heed  the  advice 
of  the  prophet:  "And  seek  the  peace  of  the  city 
whither  I  have  caused  you  to  be  carried  away  captive ; 
and  pray  unto  the  Lord  for  it ;  for  in  the  peace  thereof 
shall  ye  have  peace"  (Jer.  xxix,  7).  They  cheerfully 
carry  the  burdens  of  the  commonwealth  to  which  they 
belong.  They  are  ready  to  sacrifice  their  substance, 
and,  if  need  be,  their  lives,  for  its  welfare.  But  they 
strive  at  the  same  time  to  create  a  center  for  the  Jewish 
nation  on  its  hallowed  soil,  where  its  persecuted  mem- 
bers shall  find  refuge  from  the  wrath  of  the  oppressor, 
where  the  spirit  of  Judaism  shall  develop  in  accord- 
ance with  the  noblest  traditions  and  ideals  of  our 
nation,  and  where  the  qualities  and  abilities  of  our 
race  shall  find  their  proper  channel,  and  contribute 
their  mite  toward  the  development  and  betterment  of 
mankind. 

The  Zionists  by  no  means  overlook  the  difficulties 
which  beset  the  realization  of  their  hopes.  But  they 
know  that  also  their  ancestors  in  Egypt  gained  their 
independence  after  long  struggles  and  trials.  They 
are  ready  for  the  sacrifices  which  their  ideal  should 
demand  from  them.  They  will  do  all  within  their 
power  to  transform  the  hope  into  a  fact.     They  are 


GOD'S  PROMISE  TO  ABRAHAM  57 

sure  of  the  approval  of  all  right-minded  Christians, 
who  cannot  but  sympathize  with  a  scheme  which  aims 
at  the  re-establishment  of  Israel  in  the  land  of  its 
promise.  But,  above  all,  they  rely  on  the  Promise 
itself.  They  believe  that  the  Covenant  between  God 
and  Abraham,  which  assured  the  Jewish  nation  of  a 
land  even  before  it  was  born,  will  never  be  broken. 
"For  the  mountains  may  depart,  and  the  hills  be 
removed:  but  my  lovingkindness  shall  not  depart 
from  thee,  neither  shall  my  covenant  of  peace  be  re- 
moved, saith  the  Lord,  that  hath  mercy  on  thee" 
(Isa.  liv,  10). 


V 

HEZEKIAH'S  GREAT  PASSOVER* 

THE  celebration  of  the  Passover  as  recorded  in 
the  thirtieth  chapter  of  the  second  Book  of 
Chronicles  is  one  of  the  most  important  events  in  the 
eventful  reign  of  Hezekiah.  In  order  to  comprehend 
this  it  is  necessary  to  take  a  bird's-eye  view  of  the 
time  of  Hezekiah,  and  to  consider  the  general  tenden- 
cies of  that  age. 

One  of  the  great  issues  which  were  successfully 
fought  out  in  the  time  of  Hezekiah  may  be  char- 
acterized as  assimilation  versus  isolation.  It  was 
the  question  whether  Israel  was  to  be  similar  to  the 
other  peoples,  merely  a  unit  in  the  assembly  of 
nations,  or  whether  it  was  to  be  an  isolated  people, 
distinguished  and  separated  in  its  ideals  and  practices 
from  the  rest  of  the  world.  That  Israel  was  a  chosen 
people,  superior  to  all  other  nations,  was  flattering 
enough  to  recommend  itself  to  every  member  of  the 
house  of  Israel.  But  the  character  and  the  content 
of  this  superiority  or  supremacy  was  a  subject  of 
violent  discussion.  The  masses  of  the  people,  who 
always  judge  by  analogies,  saw  this  supremacy  in 
political  and  material  pre-eminence.  The  spiritual 
leaders  of  the  people,  above  all,  the  prophets,  be- 
lieved, on  the  other  hand,  in  the  spiritual  or  religious 


*Published  in  the  Sunday  School  Times  on  May  27,  1911,  as 
part  of  the  International  Bible  Lessons  on  II  Chronicles  xxx. 


60  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

character  of  Israel's  supremacy,  and  they  fought  the 
illusion,  ridiculous  as  well  as  dangerous,  of  Israel's 
political  superiority  over  the  other  nations  with 
prophetic  persistence.  For  as  long  as  the  great  em- 
pires of  antiquity  kept  beyond  Israel's  political 
horizon  that  illusion  could,  with  some  stretch  of 
imagination  and  self-delusion,  be  kept  alive.  But 
with  the  appearance  of  the  Assyrian  invader  on  the 
scene,  the  illusion  of  Israel's  political  pre-eminence 
was  displayed  in  all  its  hollowness;  and  a  terrible  dis- 
appointment, cutting  the  very  life-thread  of  the 
people,  was  bound  to  follow.  Ephraim,  which  to  the 
very  last  moment  clung  to  this  dangerous  illusion, 
finally  lost  the  vivifying  belief  in  Jewish  supremacy 
altogether,  and  was  ready  to  yield  up  its  national 
identity  and  to  assimilate  with  the  other  nations. 
Judah  was  threatened  by  the  same  fate.  But  at  this 
juncture — it  was  in  the  time  of  Hezekiah — Isaiah 
arose  and  promulgated  the  great  doctrine  of  Shear 
Yashub,  "The  Remnant  shall  return,"  the  idea  that 
Israel's  superiority  was  not  political  or  material,  and 
did  not  depend  on  the  size  of  its  population  and  the 
extent  of  its  territory.  "The  remnant  shall  return, 
even  the  remnant  of  Jacob,  unto  the  Almighty  God. 
For  though  thy  people,  Israel,  be  as  the  sand  of  the 
sea,  yet  a  remnant  of  them  shall  return"  (Isa.  x,  21,  22) 
and,  "though  a  tenth  be  left  in  it,  it  shall  be  consumed 
once  again;  as  a  teil  tree  and  as  an  oak,  whose  stock 
is  left  in  them  when  they  cast  off  their  leaves,  so  shall 
the  holy  seed  be  the  stock  thereof"  (Isa.  vi,  13). 

Long  and  violent  was  the  struggle  between  these 
two  opposing  tendencies.     The  destruction  of  Samaria 


HEZEKIAH'S  GREAT  PASSOVER  61 

in  722  was  a  brilliant,  though  bloody,  vindication  of 
the  prophetic  theory.  Isaiah  lent  it  the  power  of  his 
eloquence  and  personality.  Hezekiah,  who  was  a 
docile  pupil  of  Isaiah,  put  it  into  practice.  His  reign 
was,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  backslidings,  one 
great  attempt  to  realize  the  prophetic  ideal  of  the 
Holy  Remnant,  which  keeping  away  from  politics,  shall 
live  for  the  higher  ideals  of  the  Jewish  people. 

Yet  another  great  issue  was  brought  to  a  peaceful 
close  in  the  reign  of  Hezekiah.  This  issue  may  be 
designated  by  the  formula  centralization  versus  decen- 
tralization. The  idea  of  a  Chosen  People,  which 
already  in  its  patriarchs  was  chosen  to  be  God's  people 
on  earth,  necessarily  implies  the  unity  of  Israel. 
The  prophets  could  not  but  disregard  and  oppose  the 
differences  of  tribe  and  clan.  To  them  Israel  was  one, 
as  his  God  was  one.  And  as  they  recognized  but 
one  people,  so  did  they  recognize  but  one  religious 
and  political  center:  the  temple  at  Jerusalem  and 
the  dynasty  of  David.  The  division  of  the  kingdom 
did  not  exist  for  them.  The  Mosaic  law  addresses  it- 
self to  the  nation  and  not  to  the  tribes.  Joshua, 
though  an  Ephraimite,  is  the  head  of  the  whole 
of  Israel.  Shiloh  was  to  be  the  central  sanctuaryof  the 
whole  nation.  Deborah  rises  as  a  "mother  in  Israel" 
to  unite  the  tribes  for  the  avenging  of  Israel.  Samuel, 
reared  in  the  national  atmosphere  of  Shiloh,  breaks  up 
the  separation  of  Ephraim  by  transferring  the  political 
center  of  gravity  to  the  south,  to  Benjamin  and  subse- 
quently to  Judah.  The  prophets  who  lived  after  the 
division  of  the  kingdom  continued  to  uphold  the  ideal 
of    a    united    Israel.     Amos,    though    a    peasant    in 


62  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

Judea,  is  commanded  to  leave  his  flock  and  to  go  to 
Bethel  to  admonish  his  northern  brethren.  Hosea, 
though  a  resident  of  the  north,  speaks  affectionately 
of  the  time  when  even  the  children  of  Israel  "shall 
seek  the  Lord  their  God,  and  David  their  king" 
(iii,  5).  To  Isaiah,  the  contemporary  of  Hezekiah, 
the  whole  existence  of  the  Ephraimites  is  an  anamoly 
which  must  soon  take  an  end.  His  doctrine  of  the 
inviolability  of  Zion  is  the  climax  of  this  prophetic 
tendency  of  centralization.  "For  out  of  Jerusalem 
shall  go  forth  a  remnant,  and  they  that  escape  out  of 
Mount  Zion"  (xxxvii,  32;  II  Kings  xxxi,  19).  "For 
out  of  Zion  shall  go  forth  the  Law,  and  the  Word  of 
the  Lord  from  Jerusalem"  (ii,  3). 

Against  this  centralizing  tendency  of  Jewish  prophe- 
cy were  arrayed  the  masses  of  the  people  who  fondly 
clung  to  their  tribal  traditions  and  peculiarities. 
This  particularism,  visible  already  in  the  time  of 
Moses,  dominates  the  whole  period  of  the  Judges. 
Shiloh,  which  was  to  be  the  religious  center  of  the 
nation,  is  disregarded  and  yields  its  authority  to  the 
tribal  sanctuaries.  Particularly  intense  is  the  conflict 
between  the  North  and  the  South  and  their  most  promi- 
nent representatives  Ephraim  and  Judah.  Haughty 
Ephraim,  who  claimed  to  be  "the  Prince  of  his 
brethren"  (Gen.  xlix,  26;  Deut.  xxxiii,  16),  looked 
down  with  infinite  disdain  upon  insignificant  Judah. 
In  the  face  of  the  Philistine  danger  which  threatened 
the  whole  nation  with  destruction,  the  people  united 
under  the  leadership  of  the  South.  But  the  union 
was  merely  temporary,  and  the  old  contrast  continued 
with  full  vigor.     "We  have  no  part  in  David,  neither 


HEZEKIAH'S  GREAT  PASSOVER  63 

have  we  inheritance  in  the  Son  of  Jesse;  every  man 
to  his  tents,  O  Israel!"  (II  Sam.  xx,  1;  I  Kings  xii, 
16),  becomes  the  war  cry  of  the  North.  It  is  stifled  by 
the  power  of  David  and  the  splendor  of  Solomon,  but 
is  raised  successfully  under  the  weak  Rehoboam. 

The  development  of  Judah  and  Israel  after  the  un- 
fortunate division  is  like  that  of  two  separate  nations. 
The  city  of  Jerusalem,  which  was  to  be  the  national 
capital,  and  the  temple  of  Jerusalem,  which  was  to  be 
the  national  sanctuary,  was  a  menace  to  tribal  inde- 
pendence and  was  a  thorn  in  the  flesh  of  the  citizens 
of  the  North.  It  was  therefore  the  first  concern  of 
Jeroboam  to  counteract  this  centralizing  power  of 
Jerusalem  by  erecting  various  sanctuaries  for  the 
various  tribes.  The  haughty  drunkards  of  Ephraim 
despised  the  house  of  David  and  the  temple  of 
Jerusalem,  and  they  remained  proud  to  the  last,  till 
the  crown  of  pride  of  Ephraim,  to  use  the  language  of 
Isaiah  (xxviii,  1,2),  was  in  a  tempest  of  hail  and  in  a 
destroying  storm  cast  down  to  the  earth  and  trodden 
under  foot.  The  destruction  of  Samaria,  during  the 
reign  of  Hezekiah,  was  the  triumph  of  the  great  ideal 
of  centralization  proclaimed  by  the  prophets. 

On  this  historic  background  the  celebration  of  the 
Great  Passover  by  Hezekiah  stands  out  in  bold  relief 
and  assumes  a  unique  significance. 

To  my  mind  the  significance  of  the  celebration  does 
not  lie  in  its  form  nor  in  the  change  of  the  date  on 
which  it  took  place,  but  in  the  fact  that  for  the  first 
time  since  the  division  of  the  kingdom  the  proud  citi- 
zens of  the  North  appeared  on  the  soil  of  Zion  in  order 
to  do  homage  to  the  house  of  David  and  to  the  temple 
at  Jerusalem. 


64  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

The  event  must  have  taken  place  shortly  after  the 
destruction  of  Samaria  in  722,  which  marked  the  sixth 
year  of  Hezekiah's  reign.  Hezekiah,  a  faithful  disciple 
of  Isaiah,  regarded  it  as  his  life  task  to  carry  into 
reality  the  ideal  of  his  master.  He  dispelled  the 
phantom  of  material  superiority,  and,  discarding  pol- 
itics and  diplomacy,  devoted  himself  heart  and  soul 
to  the  organization  and  centralization  of  the  Holy 
Remnant  on  the  soil  of  Zion.  This  idea  of  a  Remnant 
assumed  immediate  reality  now  that  Judah,  after  the 
destruction  of  Samaria,  had  in  itself  become  a  "rem- 
nant of  Israel."  Hezekiah  as  the  king  of  the  Remnant 
was  again  the  king  of  the  whole  nation.  Now  that 
the  mighty  Assyrian  had  humbled  the  pride  of 
Ephraim,  there  was  a  hope  of  uniting  the  whole 
house  of  Israel  and  of  restoring  once  more  the  author- 
ity of  the  Davidic  house  and  of  the  holy  temple  as 
political  and  spiritual  centers  for  the  whole  nation. 
This  effort  found  expression  in  the  attempt  to  unite 
the  North  and  the  South  in  the  common  celebration  of 
Passover,  the  great  national  festival. 

Hezekiah  then  issued  a  call  which  was  this  time 
addressed  not  only  to  the  Judaeans,  but  to  Ephraim 
and  Manasseh  as  well  (II  Chronicles  xxx,  1).  The  call 
was  sent  broadcast  all  over  the  territory  of  united 
Israel.  In  order  to  insure  the  presence  of  the  Israel- 
ites, he  sent  messengers  with  letters  (v.  6)  who  "passed 
from  city  to  city  through  the  country  of  Ephraim  and 
Manasseh,  even  unto  Zebtdun."  This  detail  is  im- 
portant, for  it  minutely  coincides  with  the  fact  re- 
ported independently  in  the  Bible  (II  Kings,  xv,  29) 
that  already  twelve  years  previously  (in  734)  Tiglath- 


HEZEKIAH'S  GREAT  PASSOVER  65 

pileser,  the  king  of  Assyria,  had  invaded  the  northern 
territory  of  Israel  and  had  taken  "Ijon,  and  Abel- 
beth-maachah,  and  Janoah,  and  Kedesh,  and  Hazor, 
and  Gilead,  and  Galilee,  all  the  land  of  Naphtali;  and 
carried  them  captive  to  Assyria."  The  messengers 
therefore  stopped  at  the  border  of  Naphtali.  As  for 
the  rest  of  the  northern  population,  we  know  from 
the  inscriptions  of  Sargon,  the  destroyer  of  Samaria, 
that  in  the  beginning  only  27,290  people  were  exiled 
from  Samaria,  and  that  the  number  of  those  left  be- 
hind was  large  enough  to  justify  the  appointment  of  a 
governor  over  them. 

As  for  the  contents  of  the  letters  sent  by  Hezekiah, 
they  are  fully  in  accord  with  the  historical  situation 
as  sketched  above.  Hezekiah  calls  upon  the  north- 
ern tribes  to  submit  to  the  inevitable,  to  give  up  their 
political  ambitions,  to  realize  that  they  are  but  a  rem- 
nant, to  remember  the  God  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and 
Jacob,  who  is  the  God  of  the  whole  nation,  and  to 
acknowledge  the  authority  of  the  temple  of  Jerusalem 
which  they  had  so  long  resisted.  "Ye  children  of 
Israel,  turn  again  unto  the  Lord  God  of  Abraham, 
Isaac,  and  Israel,  and  he  will  return  to  the  remnant 
of  you.  .  .  .  And  be  ye  not  like  your  fathers,  and 
like  your  brethren  which  trespassed  against  the  Lord 
God  of  their  fathers.  .  .  .  Now  be  ye  not  stiff-necked 
as  your  fathers  were,  but  yield  yourselves  unto  the 
Lord,  and  enter  his  sanctuary  which  he  hath  sanctified 
forever"  (vs.  6-8). 

The  reception  with  which  the  messengers  of  the 
Judaean  king  met  was  not  a  hearty  one.  Too  deeply 
rooted  was  the  pride  of  Ephraim.     "They  laughed 


66  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

them  to  scorn,  and  mocked  them"  (v.  10).  Yet  the 
call  of  Hezekiah  was  not  in  vain.  The  terrible  cat- 
astrophe brought  the  better  elements  of  Israel  to 
their  senses.  "Nevertheless  divers  of  Asher  and 
Manasseh  and  of  Zebulun  humbled  themselves,  and 
came  to  Jerusalem"  (v.  11);  in  other  words,  single 
individuals  from  these  tribes,  to  which  must  be  added 
from  verse  18  Ephraim  and  Issachar,  gave  up  their 
pride,  and  were  ready  to  sink  their  tribal  individuality 
in  the  larger  individuality  of  a  united  Israel.  They 
acknowledged  the  root  of  the  stem  of  Jesse  as  the  head 
of  the  nation,  and  the  temple  of  Jerusalem  as  the  re- 
ligious center  of  the  Jewish  people. 

The  ideal  of  centralization,  so  long  and  yet  so 
vainly  preached  by  the  prophets,  was  now  a  reality. 
Samaria  was  lost,  but  Israel  was  saved.  Great,  in- 
deed, must  have  been  the  joy  of  the  Judaeans  over 
the  return  of  their  estranged  brethren.  And  when 
the  Chronist  adds  that  "since  the  time  of  Solomon 
the  son  of  David,  king  of  Israel  there  was  not  the 
like  in  Jerusalem,"  he  merely  records  an  historic 
fact.  Ever  since  the  days  of  the  last  ruler  of  the 
united  kingdom  no  occasion  brought  the  whole  house 
of  Israel  together  as  did  the  celebration  of  the  Great 
Passover  under  Hezekiah. 


VI 
THE  PROPHET  JEREMIAH* 

THE  Prophet  Jeremiah" — the  mere  title  solves 
half  of  the  problem  which  faces  us  to-night. 
The  designation  of  Jeremiah  as  a  prophet  at  once 
raises  him  from  the  vast  plain  of  the  species  homo 
sapiens  and  transfers  him  to  the  solitary  height 
occupied  by  the  prophets  of  Israel.  This  height  is  so 
lofty,  so  unassailable  that  it  has  never  been  aimed  at 
even  by  those  who  attack  and  sully  everything 
Jewish  merely  because  it  is  Jewish.  Attempts  with- 
out number  have  been  made  to  define  this  unique 
position  of  Jewish  prophecy.  But  perhaps  we  do  it 
best  if  we  simply  say:  a  prophet  is  an  idealist. 

This  at  first  may  sound  rather  trivial.  Even  in 
our  materialistic  age  there  are  but  few  who  do  not 
claim  this  title.  The  man  who  contributes  his  mite 
to  relieve  distress  which  is  not  his  own;  who  devotes  a 
part  of  his  time  or  energy  to  a  cause  that  goes  beyond 
his  individual  needs;  who  sacrifices  an  hour  of  the 
actual  present  to  listen  to  the  records  of  the  dead 
past,  considers  himself,  and  has  in  a  measure  the 
right  to  consider  himself,  an  idealist.  But  idealism 
and  ideals  are  conceptions  capable  of  endless  grada- 
tion.    They  are  relative  conceptions,  being  measured 

*Paper  read  before  the  "Mickve  Israel  Association"  of 
Philadelphia,  on  November  20,  1904.  Published  in  the  Jewish 
Exponent  on  November  25,  December  2  and  9,  1904. 


68  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

and  defined  by  their  relation  to  reality.  An  ideal  is 
determined  by  its  distance  from  reality.  An  ideal  it 
an  ideal  only  so  long  as  it  is  not  reality.  As  soon  as  is 
becomes  reality,  it  ceases  to  be  an  ideal.  Therefore, 
the  greater  the  distance  separating  it  from  reality, 
the  stronger  the  efforts  and  the  heavier  the  sacrifices 
necessary  to  obtain  it,  the  loftier  is  the  ideal. 

Viewing  our  problem  in  this  light,  we  are  at  once 
able  to  appreciate  the  prophetic  ideals.  While  most 
of  the  ideals  of  our  common  life  are  very  close  to 
reality,  so  that  the  cherished  ideals  of  to-day  are  the 
established  facts  of  to-morrow,  the  ideals  of  the 
prophets  have  remained,  after  an  uninterrupted 
struggle  and  development  of  twenty-five  centuries, 
just  as  lofty  and  exalted,  just  as  far  removed  from 
reality  as  they  were  at  the  time  they  were  first  pro- 
claimed. 

Now  while  an  ideal  is  defined  by  its  distance  from 
reality,  idealism  is  defined  by  its  nearness  to  reality. 
Idealism  is  the  attempt  to  abolish  ideals — by  trans- 
forming them  into  reality.  Therefore,  the  greater 
our  effort  to  bring  the  ideals  in  their  totality  closer 
to  reality,  to  transform  them  into  facts,  the  greater 
our  idealism.  In  this  respect,  too,  prophetic  idealism, 
though  substantially  the  same  as  that  of  our  common 
life,  differs  endlessly  in  degree  from  our  every  day 
idealism.  For  while  almost  everyone  considers  him- 
self an  idealist,  yet,  at  the  same  time,  almost  everyone 
considers  himself  a  practical  man,  a  man  who  under- 
stands life,  who  knows  his  age  and  its  circumstances. 
We  hold  to  our  ideals,  to  be  sure,  but  we  are  also  wise 
enough  not  to  demand  the  impossible.     We  are  aware 


THE  PROPHET  JEREMIAH  69 

of  the  difficulties,  we  are  easily  satisfied — and  the 
blazing  fire  of  the  ideal  is  buried  beneath  the  ashes 
of  reality,  reduced  to  a  tiny  flickering  flame. 

Such  is  our  idealism.  But  the  idealism  of  the 
prophets  is  of  a  different  calibre  altogether.  The 
prophets  are  essentially  impractical,  and  it  is  cruel 
irony  and  an  insult  to  the  prophetic  name  that  those 
who  talk  and  preach  so  much  of  prophetic  Judaism 
justify  their  attitude  by  practical  considerations,  by 
the  demands  of  life  and  circumstances.  The  prophets 
do  not  bargain  with  life,  and  do  not  consider  age  and 
circumstances.  The  prophets  are  without  considera- 
tion and  without  compassion.  They  refuse  to  regard 
the  consequences  of  their  teachings.  Their  eye  is 
focused  on  their  ideal,  and  perceives  all  things  from 
this  angle.  Reality  is  a  quantite  negligeable  to  them. 
We  stand  on  the  ground  and  try  to  pull  the  ideal 
down  to  earth,  but  their  point  of  Archimedes  is  the 
ideal,  and  they  endeavor  to  lift  the  earth  up  to  their 
ideal.  Once  the  prophet  is  convinced  that  absolute 
justice  is  the  ideal  to  be  striven  for, — without  regard 
as  to  whether  a  social  order  is  possible  through  it  or 
not,  his  maxim  becomes:  fiat  justitia,  per  eat  mundusl 
Once  the  prophet  has  recognized  the  inefficacy  of 
material  power,  he  does  not  care  in  the  least  whether 
his  state  or  nation  will  perish.  "Not  by  might,  ncr 
by  power,  but  by  my  spirit,  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts."1 
At  a  time  when  the  world  resounded  with  the  noise  of 
arms,  and  the  material  forces  of  the  nation  had  to  be 
concentrated  on   the  struggle  for  its  existence,   the 

1Zechariah  iv,  6. 


70  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

prophet  exclaimed:  "Let  not  the  brave  man  glory  in 
his  bravery,  but  let  him  that  glorieth  glory  in  this 
that  he  understandeth  and  knoweth  me,  that  I  am  the 
Lord  which  exercises  lovingkindness,  justice  and 
righteousness  in  the  earth."1  Nay,  the  prophet 
does  not  even  regard  the  laws  of  nature.  Nature 
herself  has  to  obey  his  ideals.  "And  the  wolf  shall 
dwell  with  the  lamb,  and  the  leopard  shall  lie  down 
with  the  kid,  and  the  calf  and  the  young  lion  and  the 
fatling  together,  and  a  little  child  shall  lead  them."2 
But  the  mere  formulation  of  lofty  ideals  is  not 
sufficient.  A  great  many  thinkers  and  philosophers 
among  other  nations  have  set  forth  sublime  idealistic 
theories.  History,  however,  is  not  made  by  philo- 
sophers, but  by  martyrs,  by  men  whose  lives  are  an 
object-lesson  of  their  doctrines.  The  Jewish  prophets 
were  at  once  thinkers  and  martyrs.  Not  only  did  they 
think  their  ideals,  they  lived  their  ideals— they  lived 
their  ideals  because  they  were  not  theirs,  but  God's. 
The  prophet  is  most  intimately  connected  with  God. 
He  is  entirely  dependent  on  Him,  he  feels  himself 
His  organ,  His  vessel.  What  he  thinks,  what  he 
does,  what  he  speaks,  is  really  not  his,  but  God's, 
for  "the  spirit  of  the  Lord  speaketh  by  me,  and  His 
word  is  on  my  tongue."3  Whether  he  appears 
before  the  king  to  reproach  him  publicly  for  his 
baneful  policy,  or  gives  a  name  to  his  new-born  son, 
whether  he  speaks  against  "nations  and  kingdoms," 


^Jeremiah  ix,  22-23. 

2Isaiah  xi,  6. 

3II  Samuel,  xxiii,  2. 


THE  PROPHET  JEREMIAH  71 

or  enjoys  the  sight  of  a  simple  almond-tree,  he  is 
inspired  and  moved  by  the  spirit  of  God.  Com- 
munion with  God,  a  phrase  nowadays  heard  so  often 
from  the  pulpit,  was  to  the  prophets  more  than  a 
phrase;  it  was  palpable  reality  which  filled  their 
lives  and  ruled  their  actions. 

What  this  communion  with  the  Divine  really 
meant,  we  know  not,  and,  so  long  as  our  senses  are 
hedged  in  by  time  and  space,  we  shall  not  know. 
The  believing  Jew  has  at  his  disposal  the  vast  possi- 
bilities which  lie  between  the  vision  of  Ezekiel,  who 
swallows  the  scroll  presented  to  him  by  God,  and  the 
abstract  doctrine  of  Maimonides  who  conceives  of 
prophecy  as  the  conjunction  of  our  mind  with  the 
Active  Intellect  of  the  sublunar  world.  But  the  fact 
as  such  impresses  itself  irresistibly  upon  the  mind  of 
everyone  who  reads  and  understands  the  prophets. 

Communing  with  God,  being  but  the  vessel,  the 
instrument  of  the  Lord,  of  the  King  of  Kings,  "that 
created  the  heavens  and  stretched  them  out;  that 
spread  forth  the  earth,  and  what  cometh  out  of  it; 
that  giveth  breath  unto  the  people  upon  it  and  spirit 
to  them  that  walk  therein,"1  what  does  the  prophet 
care  for  the  attacks  of  men,  those  poor  miserable 
creatures,  whose  "foundation  is  in  the  dust,  who  are 
crushed  before  the  moth"?2  "If  the  Lord  is  on  my 
side,  I  will  not  fear;  what  can  men  do  unto  me?"3 
And  suppose  they  do  aught  to  him,  suppose  they  cause 


xIsaiah  xlii,  5. 
2Job  iv,  19. 
3Psalm  cxviii,  6. 


72  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

him  suffering  and  pain,  of  what  significance  is  his 
personal  welfare  when  compared  with  the  Divine 
task  laid  upon  him?  "I  gave  my  back  to  the  smiters 
and  my  cheeks  to  them  that  plucked  off  the  hair; 
I  hid  not  my  face  from  shame  and  spitting."1  The 
prophet  is  not  even  proud  of  his  self-sacrifice;  he 
considers  it  in  the  nature  of  things.  Nay,  he  does 
not  complain  about  it;  he  is  mute, — "he  is  like  a  tame 
lamb  that  is  led  to  the  slaughter."2  The  fear 
of  death  and  suffering  removed,  eveiy  man  becomes 
a  hero.  He  is  not  afraid  of  the  tyranny  of  the  king, 
nor  of  the  greater  tyranny  of  the  mob,  nor  of  the  still 
greater  tyranny  of  his  own  passions.  The  values  and 
standards  of  reality  lose  all  their  significance.  Earth 
itself  becomes  so  negligible,  so  featherlight  that  the 
prophet  thinks  it  within  his  reach  to  lift  it  to  the 
height  of  his  heavenly  ideals. 

Have  the  prophets  succeeded  in  their  titanic  effort? 
No,  and  yes.  The  ideals  of  the  prophets  are  still 
ideals.  They  have  not  yet  been  reached,  and  perhaps 
will  not  be  reached  until  God  creates  "a  new  heaven 
and  a  new  earth,"  until  man  ceases  to  be  man,  and 
becomes  an  angel.  But  by  their  gigantic  striving 
towards  one  extreme  they  have  rescued  mankind 
from  another:  they  have  prevented  man  from  remain- 
ing a  beast  and  have  created — humanity. 

Jeremiah  then  was  a  prophet.  Having  stated  and 
defined  what  this  term  implies,  we  have  suggested  a 
solution  for  only  half  of  our  problem.      We  now  have 


'Isaiah  1,  6. 
2Jeremiah  xi,  19. 


THE  PROPHET  JEREMIAH  73 

to  attack  the  second  half:  the  individual  peculiarities 
of  the  prophet  known  as  Jeremiah.  There  were  only 
a  few  great  prophets,  but  every  one  of  them — as  is 
only  natural  with  great  men — is  a  distinct  and  well- 
defined  personality.  Maimonides  enumerates  eleven 
degrees  of  prophecy.  The  Talmud  goes  further  and 
emphasizes  the  individualism  of  Jewish  prophecy  with 
epigrammatic  pithiness:  "One  style  is  common  to 
many  prophets,  but  there  are  not  two  prophets  who 
employ  the  same -style."1  The  Divine  element,  the 
consciousness  of  God,  the  communion  with  God,  are 
common  to  all  the  prophets,  but  every  one  of  them 
has  a  sharply  marked  individuality  in  which  he 
differs  from  all  the  others,  this  difference  being  de- 
termined, as  is  the  case  with  every  man,  by  place, 
time,  and  environment. 

Viewing  Jeremiah  as  an  individuality,  and  com- 
paring him  with  the  other  great  prophets,  I  believe 
we  may  say,  if  we  be  permitted  to  apply  ordinary 
standards  to  extraordinary  phenomena,  that  Jeremiah 
was  the  sublimest  of  the  prophets.  It  almost  looks  as 
if  Providence  had  intended  to  gather  all  the  rays  of 
prophecy  into  one  focus  in  order  to  illumine  the 
struggle  and  downfall  of  Judea.  This  unique  dis- 
tinction of  Jeremiah  is  the  result  not  only  of  unparal- 
leled endowments  of  soul  and  character,  but  also  of 
the  time  in  which  the  prophet  lived.  His  age  was 
one  of  the  stormiest  periods  in  the  annals  of  Israel 
as  well  as  in  the  general  destinies  of  the  Orient.  It 
seems  as  if  History  had  been  anxious  to  furnish  a 


^anhedrin  89a. 


74  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

worthy  background  for  this  great  personality.  The 
year  of  the  first  prophetic  call  of  Jeremiah  (626  B.  C. 
E.)  is  the  year  of  death  of  the  last  great  king  of 
Assyria,  of  Assurbanipal,  or,  as  the  Greeks  called  him, 
Sardanapalus.  His  demise  marks  the  beginning  of 
the  rapid  decline  of  the  powerful  empire  which  for 
many  centuries  had  ruled  and  oppressed  the  whole  of 
Western  Asia.  The  decline  of  Assyria  is  accompanied 
by  the  rise  of  other  great  empires,  competing  with 
Assyria:  of  Egypt,  of  Media,  and,  over  and  above  all, 
of  the  Chaldeans.  Their  leader  Nebuchadnezzar , 
the  Asiatic  Napoleon,  aided  by  the  Medes,  succeeds 
in  crushing  the  Assyrian  empire  and  in  destroying  their 
capital  Nineveh.  The  Egyptian  Pharaoh,  who  tried 
to  contest  Nebuchadnezzar's  victories,  is  over- 
whelmingly defeated,  and  the  Chaldean  conqueror 
governs  the  destinies  of  Western  Asia  as  far  as  the 
Mediterranean. 

It  is  but  natural  that  the  land  in  which  and  for 
which  our  prophet  was  active  should  have  been 
vitally  affected  by  these  occurrences.  The  first  years 
of  Jeremiah  coincide  with  the  last  years  of  Manasseh, 
the  cruel  tyrant,  who  had  submitted  not  only  to 
Assyrian  rule,  but  also  to  Assyrian  cult  and  culture, 
and  had  mercilessly  persecuted  everything  that  was 
Jewish.  His  successor  Amon  was  killed  in  a  rebellion, 
having  reigned  for  only  two  years.  Under  his  suc- 
cessor Josiah  conditions  became  more  tolerable,  owing 
to  the  decline  of  the  Assyrian  empire,  which  was  no 
more  able  to  interfere  with  its  dependencies.  Josiah 
devoted  himself  to  the  improvement  of  the  inner 
conditions,  and  more  especially  of  the  religious  life 


THE  PROPHET  JEREMIAH  75 

of  his  country.  But  instead  of  Assyria,  Egypt  arose. 
Josiah  was  venturesome  enough  to  face  the  Egyptian 
sovereign.  The  decision  took  place  on  the  plain  of 
Megiddo  (608  B.  C.  E.).  Josiah  was  killed,  his  army 
destroyed,  and  Pharaoh  dethroned  and  enthroned 
the  kings  of  Judah. 

The  victory  of  Nebuchadnezzar  over  Pharaoh  at 
the  battle  of  Carchemish  (605  B.  C.  E.)  throws 
Palestine  like  a  ball  into  the  hands  of  the  Chaldeans. 
King  Jehoiakim,  incited  by  the  Egyptians,  makes  an 
attempt  to  throw  off  the  Chaldean  yoke,  but,  with  the 
rapidity  of  a  whirlwind,  the  army  of  Nebuchadnezzar 
appears  before  the  gates  of  Jerusalem.  Jehoiakim 
dies  during  the  siege.  His  successor  Jeconiah  sur- 
renders to  the  Chaldeans,  and  is  carried  off  to  Baby- 
lonia, together  with  the  aristocracy  and  the  most 
influential  classes  of  the  population,  among  them  the 
prophet  Ezekiel.  Zedekiah  takes  possession  of  the  fatal 
inheritance.  He,  too,  is  seduced  by  deceitful  Egypt 
to  rebel  against  Babylon.  Nebuchadnezzar  again 
appears  before  Jerusalem.  There  follows  a  desperate 
siege  lasting  one  year  and  a  half,  with  the  result  that 
the  country  is  subdued,  the  city  and  temple  destroyed, 
and  the  people  carried  into  captivity.  Only  a  small 
remnant  stays  in  the  country.  Nebuchadnezzar  is 
tolerant  enough  to  grant  them  a  certain  amount  of 
autonomy,  under  the  governorship  of  Gedaliah  ben 
Achikam.  But  soon  afterwards  the  Chaldean  gover- 
nor is  killed  by  his  envious  rivals,  and  the  last  spark 
of  Judah's  independence  is  extinguished. 

Such  was  the  background  of  Jeremiah's  activity, 
a  dark  and  dismal  background.     Gloomy  clouds  hover 


76  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

on  the  horizon.  The  storm  is  raging,  lightning 
flashes,  the  thunder  roars,  thrones  are  crumbling, 
kingdoms  are  falling  to  pieces,  but  upon  this  somber 
background  stands  out  the  luminous  figure  of  Jere- 
miah. The  light  radiated  by  his  personality  pene- 
trates the  darkness,  and  his  mighty  voice  sounds 
louder  than  the  storm. 

But  more  than  by  the  extraordinary  conditions  of 
his  time,  Jeremiah  is  distinguished  by  the  unusual 
traits  of  his  character.  The  gravity  of  the  circum- 
stances of  his  age  throws  into  still  bolder  relief  the 
wonderful  softness  of  his  heart.  There  is  a  tender- 
ness, nay,  a  sweetness  about  his  soul  that  cannot  be 
surpassed.  "My  bowels,  my  bowels!  I  tremble,  O 
the  walls  of  my  heart!  My  heart  groans  within  me, 
I  have  no  peace!"1  His  feelings  are  like  the  strings 
of  an  Aeolian  harp  that  vibrate  and  resound  when 
touched  by  the  lightest  breeze.  He  feels  his  com- 
munion with  God  more  vividly  than  the  other  proph- 
ets, and  he  describes  it  in  terms  unparalleled  for  depth 
and  sincerity.  But  just  as  he  loves  his  God  so  does 
he  love  his  people,  and  words  of  deepest  tenderness 
flow  now  and  then  from  the  otherwise  scornful  lips  of 
the  prophet.  And  the  man  with  such  a  soul  and  such 
depth  of  sentiment  is  destined  continually  to  curse 
his  people  and  to  prophesy  its  destruction,  and  not 
only  to  prophesy  it,  but  to  live  it,  to  live  it  and  to  feel 
it  with  every  fibre  of  his  soul,  long,  long  before  it 
actually  occurred.  There  is  a  profound  and  touching 
tragedy  about  Jeremiah,  a  tragedy  that  unfolds  itself 
to  its  full  extent  in  the  different  stages  of  his  career. 

Mv,  19. 


THE  PROPHET  JEREMIAH  77 

The  circumstances  of  Jeremiah's  life  are  known  to 
us  in  greater  detail  than  those  of  any  other  prophet. 
The  reason  for  it  is  not  far  to  seek.  Jeremiah's 
activities  were  intimately  bound  up  with  the  history 
of  his  period  which  was  filled  with  stirring  and  crucial 
events  and  was  for  this  reason  better  preserved  in  the 
memory  of  posterity.  For  this  very  same  reason 
it  is  not  surprising  that  we  are  almost  entirely  un- 
acquainted with  the  purely  personal  facts  of  his  life. 
Even  the  date  of  his  birth  and  death  have  not  been 
transmitted  to  us,  as  though  to  indicate  that  these 
human  facts  are  entirely  immaterial  in  the  case  of  a 
prophet  who  is  but  the  mouthpiece  of  God.  The 
chronological  order  of  the  book  of  Jeremiah  is  equally 
disputable.  We  are  therefore  compelled  to  fill  the 
void  by  conjectures,  but  conjectures  based  on 
probability. 

As  was  stated  a  moment  ago,  the  exact  date  of 
Jeremiah's  birth  has  not  been  reported  to  us.  Yet 
there  is  reason  to  assume  that  it  took  place  during 
the  last  years  of  Manasseh's  reign  (about  646  B.  C.  E.). 
He  was  born  in  Anatoth,  a  little  town  not  far  from 
Jerusalem,  inhabited  almost  entirely  by  a  priestly 
population.  Jeremiah,  the  son  of  Hilkiyahu,  belonged 
to  a  priestly  family  and  probably  received  a  priestly 
education.  But  his  whole  disposition  of  mind  and 
soul  fitted  him  for  prophecy.  "Before  I  formed  thee 
in  the  belly  I  knew  thee,  and  before  thou  earnest 
forth  out  of  the  womb  I  sanctified  thee,  and  T  ordained, 
thee  a  prophet  unto  the  nations."1      I  think  we  have 

li,s. 


78  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

to  picture  to  ourselves  the  prophet  Jeremiah  as  a 
precocious  thoughtful  lad  who  takes  everything 
seriously,  and  considers  everything  maturely.  He 
does  not  care  for  the  games  and  pleasures  of  boyhood : 
"I  sat  not  in  the  assembly  of  the  mockers,  nor  re- 
joiced. I  sat  alone  because  of  thy  might;  for  thou 
hast  filled  me  with  indignation."1 

The  times  were  serious  and  were  apt  to  make  even 
less  thoughtful  persons  think.  The  effects  of  the 
tyranny  of  Manasseh,  whose  "sword  had  devoured  the 
prophets  like  a  destroying  lion,"2  were  still  keenly 
felt.  The  prophetic  party  was  bitterly  persecuted 
and  the  prophets  themselves  had  to  go  into  hiding. 
Fortunately  the  prophetic  writings  could  not  be  sup- 
pressed and  Jeremiah  undoubtedly  read  them.  He 
could  not  help  comparing  the  ideals  as  pictured  by  the 
prophets  with  the  real  world  around  him,  and  thus 
recognizing  the  immeasurable  gulf  separating  them. 
His  countrymen,  the  priests, — how  far  were  they  from 
being  what  they  should  have  been!  Instead  of  guiding 
the  people  towards  justice  and  righteousness,  they 
lured  them  towards  sin  and  transgression.  Sin- 
cerity was  replaced  by  hollow  arrogance.  With  all 
their  wickedness,  the  leaders  of  the  people  were  not 
ashamed  to  boast:  "We  are  wise  and  the  law  of  the 
Lord  is  with  us,"3 — a  boast  that  prompts  the  bitter 
repartee  of  the  prophet:  "The  wise  men  are  ashamed, 
they  are  dismayed  and  caught.     Lo!  they  have  re- 


lxv,  17. 
2ii,  30. 
3viii,  8. 


THE  PROPHET  JEREMIAH  79 

jected  the  word  of  the  Lord,  and  what  wisdom  is  in 
them?"1  Instead  of  sanctity  and  lofty  idealism, 
he  sees  only  mean  quarrels  and  low  rivalries,  gossip, 
slander  and  jealousy.  "Take  ye  heed  every  one  of  his 
neighbor,  and  trust  ye  not  in  any  brother:  for  every 
brother  acteth  subtly,  and  every  neighbor  goeth 
about  with  slanders.  And  they  deceive  every  one 
his  neighbor  and  truth  they  speak  not.  .  .  .  Their 
tongue  is  a  sharpened  arrow  that  speaketh  deceit. 
With  his  mouth  one  speaketh  peaceably  to  his  neighbor 
but  in  his  heart  he  layeth  wait  for  him.  Shall  I  not 
punish  them  for  these  things,  saith  the  Lord,  shall  not 
my  soul  be  avenged  on  such  a  nation  as  this?"2 
The  God  of  justice  cannot  withhold  his  punishment 
from  these  treacherous  leaders  who  trample  justice 
under  foot.  Chastisement  must  come  and  will 
come,  and  the  sensitive  ear  of  the  prophet  begins  to 
listen. 

Far  away  in  Assyria  things  are  topsy-turvy.  The 
Scythians  have  left  their  habitations  and  stream 
across  the  boundaries  of  Assyria,  roaming  as  far  as 
Northern  Palestine.  "Thou  hast  heard,  O  my  soul,  the 
sound  of  the  trumpet,  the  alarm  of  war."3  In  this 
state  of  mind,  full  of  apprehensions  and  forebodings, 
the  prophet  walks  among  the  fields,  where  he  would 
often  rove  about,  where  every  leaf  and  blade  would 
reflect  his  own  thoughts  and  sentiments.  Suddenly 
his  eye  perceives  an  almond  tree,  the  first  tree  to 
blossom    in    the    spring.     Thousands    of    people    had 

hriii,  9. 

2ix,  3,  4,  7,  8. 
3iv,  19. 


80  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

probably  passed  the  same  tree,  and  had  seen  nothing. 
But  to  the  prophet  it  reveals  its  mystery.  "Jeremiah, 
what  seest  thou?"  asks  the  voice  of  God.  "I  see  the 
rod  of  an  almond  tree."  "Thou  hast  seen  well,  Jere- 
miah, for,  like  the  early  blossoming  almond-tree,  will 
I  hasten  my  word  to  perform  it  early."1  Jeremiah 
continues  his  walk.  In  the  north  he  sees  a  pot  boiling 
on  the  fire.  And  God  asks  him  again:  "What  seest 
thou?"  "I  see  a  seething  pot  in  the  direction  of  the 
north."  "Out  of  the  north,  is  the  answer  of  God,  the 
evil  shall  break  forth  upon  all  the  inhabitants  of  the 
land."2  And  Jeremiah  suddenly  becomes  aware 
that  the  punishment  is  approaching,  and  that  he  is 
to  be  a  prophet  destined  to  proclaim  it  in  the  name 
of  God.  He,  almost  a  child,  tender,  shy,  sentimental, 
who  had  never  dared  utter  a  word  in  public,  is  now  to 
appear  before  the  people,  to  warn  them,  to  reproach 
them  and  to  threaten  them  with  a  fate  the  mere 
anticipation  of  which  is  apt  to  break  his  heart.  And 
Jeremiah  objects:  "Ah,  Lord  God!  Behold,  I  cannot 
speak,  for  I  am  a  child."  "Say  not  I  am  a  child,  for 
to  whomsoever  I  shall  command  thee  thou  shalt 
speak.  ...  I  have  made  thee  this  day  a  fortified 
city  and  an  iron  pillar,  and  a  brazen  wall  against  the 
whole  land,  against  the  kings  of  Judah,  against  the 
princes  thereof,  against  the  priests  thereof  and  against 
the  people  of  the  land.  And  they  shall  fight  against 
thee,  but  they  shall  not  prevail  against  thee,  for  I  am 
with  thee  to  deliver  thee."3 


11-12. 
13-14. 
6-7;  18-19. 


THE  PROPHET  JEREMIAH 


Suddenly,  he  feels  as  if  somebody  had  touched  his 
lips,  and  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye  the  boy  becomes 
a  man,  the  shy  sentimental  lad  a  hero,  the  bashful 
youth  an  orator,  whose  words  are  like  fire,  and  like 
a  hammer  that  breaketh  the  rock  in  pieces.1  He 
returns  to  his  town  and  begins  to  prophesy,  to  exhort 
his  townsmen  and  to  warn  them,  and  to  proclaim  the 
adversity  that  is  approaching. 

Nobody  is  a  prophet  in  his  own  country,  because 
nobody  likes  to  be  governed  by  one  who  has  been 
his  equal,  or  his  inferior.  It  can,  therefore,  be  easily 
imagined  how  astonished,  how  amazed  were  the 
leaders  of  the  town.  How  dare  this  insignificant  young 
man  give  them  advice, — them,  the  representatives 
of  God  on  earth,  the  pillars  of  religion,  the  "holders 
of  the  Law?"  Down  with  this  traitor  who  predicts 
the  destruction  of  his  own  country!  "Prophesy  not 
in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  that  thou  die  not  by  our 
hand!"2  The  prophet,  of  course,  would  not  stop  his 
prophecies,  and  some  of  his  countrymen  actually 
formed  a  plot  to  get  rid  of  him.  If  our  explanation 
of  a  verse  in  Jeremiah3  be  correct,  they  actually  put 
poison  in  his  food. 

Such  was  the  beginning  of  Jeremiah's  activity,  a 
not  very  encouraging  beginning,  as  one  can  see.  But 
his  hope  is  not  lost.  The  little  town  of  Anatoth  is  not 
Judea.  Perhaps  it  is  the  pettiness  of  conditions  in  a 
small   town,   the  lack  of  culture,   the  narrowness  of 


1Compare  xxiii,  29. 
2xi,  21. 
3xi,  19. 


82  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

life  that  produces  this  stubbornness  of  heart.  But 
there,  not  very  far  off,  is  the  capital  of  Judea,  is 
Jerusalem,  the  city  of  the  Lord,  "beautiful  for  its 
situation,  the  joy  of  the  whole  earth,"1  where  the 
sanctuary  of  the  nation  is  situated,  where  the  priests 
and  Levites  serve  the  Lord  in  the  beauty  of  holiness, 
where  God  speaks  through  his  prophets  from  the 
early  morning  till  the  late  evening, — in  Jerusalem  no 
doubt  every  one  is  a  saint,  a  man  of  God;  there  his 
ideals  are  facts,  are  reality. 

Trembling  with  hope  and  awe,  the  young  prophet 
enters  the  gates  of  the  capital.  For  days  he  walks 
about  in  the  streets  of  Jerusalem,  like  Diogenes,  search- 
ing for  a  man.  But  what  is  it?  Is  it  possible?  Is  it 
conceivable?  Why,  the  people  of  Jerusalem  are 
not  better  than  the  people  of  Anatoth!  "Run  ye  to 
and  fro  through  the  streets  of  Jerusalem  and  see  now 
and  know,  and  seek  in  the  broad  places  thereof,  if 
ye  can  find  a  man,  if  there  be  any  that  doeth  justly, 
that  seeketh  truth;  and  I  will  pardon  her.  And 
though  they  say,  'as  the  Lord  liveth,'  surely  they 
swear  falsely.  .  .  .  They  have  refused  to  receive 
correction;  they  have  made  their  faces  harder  than  a 
rock,  they  have  refused  to  return."2  The  prophet 
is  almost  crushed  by  his  experience.  But  perhaps 
only  the  masses  are  so,  and  a  people  need  not  be 
judged  by  its  masses.  "And  I  said:  surely,  these  are 
poor.  They  are  ignorant,  for  they  know  not  the  way 
of  the  Lord,  nor  the  ordinance  of  their  God.     I  will 


1  Psalm  xlviii,  2. 
2v,  1-3. 


THE  PROPHET  JEREMIAH  83 


get  me  unto  the  great  men  and  will  speak  unto  them; 
for  they  know  the  way  of  the  Lord  and  the  ordinance 
of  their  God.  But  these,  too,  have  broken  the  yoke, 
and  burst  their  bonds."1 

But  not  only  the  so  called  great,  or,  as  we  now  say, 
the  big  men  are  thoroughly  wicked, — the  official 
representatives  of  religion  are  not  a  whit  better. 
"Both  prophet  and  priest  are  ungodly;  yea,  in  my 
House  have  I  found  their  wickedness,  saith  the 
Lord."2  "Even  in  the  prophets  of  Jerusalem  I  have 
seen  a  horrible  thing:  they  commit  adultery,  and  walk 
in  lies,  and  they  strengthen  the  hands  of  evil  doers, 
that  none  doth  return  from  his  wickedness.  .  .  . 
Because  of  the  prophets  my  heart  within  me  is 
broken.  All  my  bones  shake,  I  am  like  a  drunken 
man,  like  a  man  whom  wine  hath  overcome,  because 
of  the  Lord,  and  because  of  his  holy  words.  .  .  . 
From  the  prophets  of  Jerusalem  is  ungodliness  gone 
forth  into  all  the  land."3  The  fountainhead  of 
holiness  as  the  fountainhead  of  wickedness — who 
can  describe  or  fathom  the  despair  of  our  prophet? 
To  whom  shall  he  speak?  To  whom  shall  he  prophe- 
sy? To  the  dumb  masses  who  are  not  able  to  hear, 
whose  ear  is  uncircumcised,  who  cannot  hearken?4 
Or  to  the  crafty  priests  and  prophets  who  are  not 
willing  to  listen?  Why  shall  he  suffer,  why  shall  he 
sacrifice  his  life  for  a  task  that  can  never  be  ac- 
complished,  nay,   that  cannot  even  be  begun?     He 

hr,  4-5. 
2xxiii,  11. 
3xxiii„  14,  9,  15. 
4Compare  vi,  10. 


84  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

falls  a  victim  to  despair,  he  curses  the  day  of  his 
birth:  "Cursed  be  the  day  wherein  I  was  born;  the 
day  wherein  my  mother  bore  me  let  it  not  be  blessed. 
.  .  .  Why  did  he  not  slay  me  from  the  womb,  that 
my  mother  might  have  been  my  grave,  and  her  womb 
always  great?  Wherefore  came  I  forth  out  of  the 
womb  to  see  labor  and  sorrow,  that  my  days  should  be 
consumed  in  shame?"1 

He  is  determined  to  cast  off  the  burden  of  prophecy 
that  causes  him  such  nameless  pain.  His  mind  is 
made  up.  But  something  strange  is  happening  to 
him.  He  cannot  live  without  prophecy.  He  is  de- 
prived of  life  if  he  is  deprived  of  prophecy.  The  pain 
without  it  is  greater  than  the  pain  with  it.  Now  the 
real  meaning  of  prophecy  begins  to  dawn  upon  him. 
A  struggle  follows,  and  in  the  end  he  decides  to 
remain  true  to  his  calling,  which  is  his  life.  He  now 
realizes  that  his  personal  suffering  and  unhappiness 
are  of  no  account  in  comparison  with  his  own  over- 
whelming happiness  in  proclaiming  the  word  of  God. 
"Thou  hast  enticed  me,  O  Lord,  and  I  was  enticed; 
Thou  art  stronger  than  I,  and  Thou  hast  prevailed. 
I  have  become  a  laughing-stock  daily,  everyone 
mocketh  me.  For  as  often  as  I  speak,  I  cry  out,  I 
cry  'violence  and  spoil ' ;  because  the  word  of  the  Lord 
is  made  a  reproach  unto  me,  and  a  derision  all  the  day. 
And  if  I  say:  'I  will  not  make  mention  of  Him,  nor 
speak  any  more  in  His  name,'  then  there  is  in  my  heart 
as  it  were  a  burning  fire  shut  up  in  my  bones,  and  I 
weary  myself  to  hold  it  in,  but  cannot."2      But  when 


lxx,  14,  17-18. 
2xx,  7-9. 


THE  PROPHET  JEREMIAH  85 

he  did  prophecy  then  "Thy  words  were  found,  and  I 
did  eat  them,  and  Thy  word  was  unto  me  a  joy  and 
the  rejoicing  of  my  heart,  because  Thy  name  was 
called  on  me,  0  Lord,  God  of  Hosts."1  Now  he  is 
reconciled  to  his  fate.  Now  he  is  truly  a  prophet,  and, 
hovering  between  the  tortures  and  the  delights  of  his 
vocation,  Himmelhoch  jauchzend,  zu  Tode  betruebt,  he 
again  applies  himself  to  the  task  of  fighting  the  world, 
a  mean,  contemptible,  yet  powerful  world,  with  the 
word  of  God  as  the  only  weapon  in  his  hands. 

There  was  a  brief  moment  in  the  lifetime  of  Jere- 
miah when  a  feeble  ray  pierced  the  gloomy  clouds 
in  the  skies  of  Judea.  It  was  in  the  year  621,  when 
King  Josiah,  who  was  a  well-meaning  and  religious 
man,  moved  by  the  discovery  of  an  old  law  book  in 
the  Temple,  resolved  to  introduce  reforms  and  change 
the  social  and  religious  conditions  of  the  country. 
At  first,  Jeremiah  seems  to  have  encouraged  these 
reforms,  but  he  very  soon  found  out  the  truth.  As 
in  the  case  of  nearly  all  reforms  which  are  introduced 
artificially,  the  reforms  of  Josiah,  too,  merely  tapped 
the  surface.  As  far  as  the  reforms  introduced  into  the 
cult  were  concerned,  the  people  seemed  readily 
satisfied.  They  rolled  their  eyes  piously  and  ex- 
claimed hypocritically:  Hekhal  Adonai,  Hekhal  Ado- 
nai,  Hekhal  Adonail  "The  Temple  of  the  Lord! 
The  Temple  of  the  Lord!  The  Temple  of  the  Lord!"2 
But  when  the  reforms  went  deeper  and  touched  their 
social  and  family  life,  demanding  sacrifices  and  priva- 


'xv,  16. 
2vii,  4. 


86  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

tions,  then  they  rebelled  and  remained  exactly  what 
they  had  been  before,  and  religion  was  buried  in  the 
luxurious  halls  of  the  Temple. 

The  wickedness  of  the  people,  particularly  of  its 
upper  classes,  is  pictured  by  Jeremiah  in  the  gloomiest 
colors.  I  do  not  for  a  moment  believe  that  the  in- 
habitants of  Jerusalem  were  worse  than  the  popula- 
tion of  any  civilized  city  of  to-day.  If  anything 
they  were  probably  much  better.  This  is  shown  by 
the  fact  that  they  did  not  lynch  the  prophet  the  first 
time  he  denounced  them.  But  they  were  weighed  in 
the  scale  of  prophetic  idealism,  and  it  was  but  natural 
that  they  were  found  wanting.  The  prophet  un- 
ceasingly and  untiringly  scolds  them  and  curses  them; 
he  seems  in  very  truth  "a  man  of  strife  and  a  man  of 
contention  to  the  whole  earth."1 

Yet  occasionally,  perhaps  when  the  prophet  is 
least  aware  of  it,  he  drops  a  few  words  that  grant  us 
a  glimpse  mto  his  very  heart,  revealing  an  abyss  of 
love  and  tenderness.  "Go  and  cry  in  the  ears  of 
Jerusalem,  saying,  thus  saith  the  Lord:  I  remember 
thee  the  affection  of  thy  youth,  the  love  of  thine 
espousals,  when  thou  wentest  after  me  in  the  wilder- 
ness, in  a  land  that  was  not  sown."2  "Is  Ephraim 
not  a  darling  son  unto  me?  is  he  not  a  child  that  is 
daudled?  For  as  often  as  I  speak  of  him,  I  do 
earnestly  remember  him  still.  Therefore  my  heart 
yearneth  for  him;  I  will  surely  have  compassion  upon 
him,  saith  the  Lord."3      "For  the  hurt  of  the  daughter 

^v,  1C. 

2"     i 

3xxxi,  20. 


THE  PROPHET  JEREMIAH  87 

of  my  people  am  I  seized  with  anguish.  I  am  black. 
Appalment  hath  taken  hold  on  me.  .  .  .  Oh,  that 
my  head  were  waters,  and  mine  eyes  a  fountain  of 
tears,  that  I  might  weep  day  and  night  for  the  slain 
of  the  daughter  of  my  people!"1  He  loves  his  nation 
with  all  the  intensity  of  which  his  prophetic  soul  is 
capable,  and  yet  he  sees  the  catastrophe  coming 
nearer  and  nearer.  He  sees  it,  and  he  cannot  avert 
it.  He  applies  to  God  himself  and  tries  to  use  his 
influence  with  Him  as  a  prophet,  but  he  is  not  even 
allowed  to  pray  for  his  people.  "Therefore  pray  thou 
not  for  this  people,  neither  lift  up  cry  nor  prayer  for 
them,  neither  make  intercession  to  me;  for  I  will  not 
hear  thee."2  He  sees  the  approaching  calamity  with 
perfect  clearness,  and,  while  the  false  prophets  are 
trying  to  deceive  the  people  and  themselves,  crying 
Shaloml  Shaloml  "All's  well!  All's  well!",  he  feels 
and  lives  the  destruction  of  his  people  with  nameless 
pain. 

At  first  Jeremiah  does  not  yet  know  when  and 
by  whom  the  punishment  will  be  inflicted.  There  is 
even  a  possibility  for  his  people  to  avert  their  fate  if 
they  will  but  abandon  their  wickedness.  When 
Josiah  had  been  killed  by  Pharaoh  Necho  at  the 
battle  of  Megiddo  (608  B.  C.  E.),  and  the  people  had 
streamed  into  the  Temple  from  all  parts  of  the 
country  Jeremiah  declared  in  a  famous  discourse: 
"Amend  your  ways  and  your  doings  and  I  will  allow 
you  to  dwell  in  this  place."3      The  people,  of  course, 

hr'ui,  21,  13. 
2vii,  16. 
3vii,  3. 


88  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

did  not  amend  their  ways  and  their  doings,  and  the 
calamity  had  to  take  its  course.  But  when  a  few 
years  later  the  great  struggle  between  Egypt  and 
Babylon  had  begun,  and  the  people  were  filled  with 
false  hopes,  Jeremiah  at  once  recognized  the  man  who 
was  to  determine  the  fate  of  his  nation.  Nebuchad- 
nezzar was  to  be  the  instrument  of  God  to  punish 
his  people.  The  battle  of  Carchemish  in  605,  in 
which  the  Egyptian  army  was  disastrously  defeated, 
justified  his  anticipations.  Jeremiah's  mind  is  now 
so  thoroughly  made  up  about  the  future  destinies  of 
his  people  that,  following  the  Divine  command,  he 
puts  his  prophecies  in  writing  for  generations  to 
come.1  He  is  able  to  lay  down  a  definite  program. 
Nebuchadnezzar  will  destroy  Jerusalem  and  carry  the 
Judeans  into  captivity.  Resistance  to  the  Baby- 
lonian conqueror  is  not  only  useless,  it  is  pernicious, 
because  it  destroys  the  national  energy,  instead  of 
preserving  it. 

Not  that  Jeremiah  believed  that  the  Jews  had  to  be 
dispersed  among  the  nations  in  order  to  teach  them, 
or  that  they  could  perform  their  mission  only  by 
disappearing  among  them,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
because  he  was  convinced  that  even  in  their  dispersion 
they  ought  to  be  concentrated,  so  that,  improved  and 
uplifted,  they  might  return  to  their  ancient  land. 
As  if  to  refute  the  doctrine  which  looks  upon  the  dis- 
persion of  Israel  as  the  consummation  of  its  national 
hopes,  Jeremiah  went  out  of  his  way  at  a  critical 
juncture  in  the  affairs  of  Judea  to  buy  a  piece  of  land 

1Chapter  xxxvi. 


THE  PROPHET  JEREMIAH  89 

around  Anatoth,1  thereby  emphasizing  his  conviction 
that  their  stay  in  the  land  of  the  stranger  would  only 
be  of  short  duration.  From  this  standpoint,  and  from 
this  standpoint  alone — the  hope  for  the  Return — 
he  calls  upon  the  men  of  the  first  captivity  under 
Jehoiachin  (597),  whom  he  considers  the  better  part 
of  the  nation — he  calls  them  the  better  figs2 — to 
establish  themselves  in  the  land  of  Exile.  "Build 
ye  houses,  and  dwell  in  them,  and  plant  gardens,  and 
eat  the  fruit  of  them.  Take  ye  wives  and  beget 
sons  and  daughters,  and  take  wives  for  your  sons  and 
daughters;  and  multiply  ye  there  and  be  not  dimi- 
nished."3 

From  that  time  on  Jeremiah  indefatigably  demands 
surrender  to  Nebuchadnezzar.  It  can  be  easily 
imagined  that  it  was  not  quite  harmless  to  preach 
submission  in  the  capital.  More  then  once  Jeremiah 
was  in  danger  of  his  life.  Not  only  the  officials,  who 
were  perfectly  right  from  their  point  of  view,  but 
even  the  priests  and  prophets  were  eager  to  get  rid 
of  a  dangerous  rival.  On  one  occasion  he  was 
practically  doomed,  and  only  the  quick  action  of  an 
Ethiopean  slave  saved  him  at  the  last  moment.4 
But  then  why  should  he  have  feared  death,  he  who 
had  been  fervently  praying  for  the  end  of  his  suffer- 
ings? Nay,  not  even  the  burning  shame,  a  thousand 
times  bitterer  then  death,  that  he  who  had  sacrificed 


Chapter  xxxii. 
2xxiv,  5. 
3xxix,  5-6. 
4Chapter  xxxviii. 


90  PAST  AND  PRESENT 


life  and  happiness  for  his  nation  should  be  branded 
as  a  traitor  to  it,  was  able  to  prevent  him  from  doing 
his  duty. 

Nebuchadnezzar  besieges  Jerusalem.  The  in- 
habitants offer  a  most  desperate  resistance,  and  Jere- 
miah languishes  in  prison,  fettered  like  an  ordinary 
criminal,  and  preaches  the  uselessness  of  defence. 
King  Zedekiah.  laying  aside  his  dignity,  sends  a 
special  messenger  to  the  jailed  prophet,  but,  instead  of 
a  favorable  reply,  he  receives  the  answer:  "Thus 
saith  the  Lord,  the  God  of  Israel:  I  will  turn  back  the 
weapons  of  war  that  are  in  your  hands,  wherewith 
ye  fight  against  the  King  of  Babylon.  .  .And  I 
myself  will  fight  against  you  with  an  outstretched 
hand  and  with  a  strong  arm."1  A  short  time  later 
the  king  in  person  calls  upon  him  secretly  in  prison, 
but  the  prophet  is  inexorable:  "Thus  saith  the  Lord, 
the  God  of  Hosts,  the  God  of  Israel,  if  thou  wilt  go 
forth  unto  the  king  of  Babylon's  princes,  then  thy 
soul  shall  live,  and  this  city  shall  not  be  burned  with 
fire.  .  .  .  But  if  thou  wilt  not  go  forth  to  the  king 
of  Babylon's  princes,  then  shall  this  city  be  given 
into  the  hand  of  the  Chaldeans,  and  they  shall  burn 
it  with  fire,  and  thou  shalt  not  escape  out  of  their 
hand."2 

Subsequent  events  justified  the  prophet.  The 
national  strength  had  been  uselessly  wasted.  Nebu- 
chadnezzar conquered  the  city,  burnt  the  temple, 
inflicted  cruel  punishment  on  the  king,  and  carried 
the  people  to  Babylon.     Now  that  justice  has  been 


^xi,  4,  5. 
2xxxviii,  17,  18. 


THE  PROPHET  JEREMIAH  91 

done,  and  the  sins  of  the  people  have  been  expiated 
through  suffering,  Jeremiah's  conscience  is  appeased. 
There  is  no  further  necessity  or  opportunity  for  him 
to  scold  and  to  curse,  and  the  prophet  of  wrath 
becomes  a  prophet  of  love.  Words  of  unfathomable 
devotion  and  affection  accompany  the  Jewish  cap- 
tives on  their  way  to  the  far-off  exile.  "Thus  saith 
the  Lord:  Sing  with  gladness  for  Jacob,  and  shout  at 
the  head  of  the  nations.  Announce  ye,  praise  ye, 
and  say:  'O  Lord,  save  thy  people,  the  remnant  of 
Israel.'  Behold,  I  will  bring  them  from  the  North 
country,  and  gather  them  from  the  uttermost  parts 
of  the  earth,  with  them  the  blind  and  the  lame,  the 
woman  with  child  and  her  that  travaileth  with  child 
together,  a  great  company  shall  they  return  hither. 
They  shall  come  with  weeping,  and  with  supplications 
will  I  lead  them;  I  will  cause  them  to  walk  by  rivers 
of  waters,  in  a  straight  way  wherein  they  shall  not 
stumble.  For  I  am  become  a  father  to  Israel  and 
Ephraim  is  my  first-born.  .  .  .  They  shall  come  and 
sing  in  the  height  of  Zion,  and  shall  flow  unto  the 
goodness  of  the  Lord,  to  the  corn,  and  to  the  wine, 
and  to  the  oil,  and  to  the  young  of  the  flock  and  of 
the  herd,  and  their  soul  shall  be  as  a  watered  garden, 
and  they  shall  not  pine  any  more.  Then  shall  the 
virgin  rejoice  in  the  dance,  and  the  young  men  and 
the  old  together.  For  I  will  turn  their  mourning  into 
joy,  and  will  comfort  them  and  make  them  rejoice 
from  their  sorrow."1 

Among  those  that  were  carried  away  to  Babylonia 
was  Jeremiah  himself.     He  came  as  far  as  Ramah, 

lxxx\,  7-9;  12-13. 


92  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

at  no  great  distance  from  Jerusalem.  There  he  was 
released  by  the  Babylonians  who  had  probably 
heard  of  his  efforts  in  their  favor.  He  was  a  free  man. 
He  was  at  liberty  to  go  to  Babylon  where  he  was 
assured  of  Nebukadnezzar's  favor,  where  he  might 
have  lived  at  the  royal  palace,  enjoyed  life  and  per- 
haps written  at  ease  the  history  of  the  last  struggle  of 
his  nation,  as  did  Josephus  many  centuries  after- 
wards. But  Jeremiah  was  a  prophet,  and  he  did 
not  live  for  himself  but  for  his  people.  His  mind  was 
soon  made  up.  He  remained  in  his  devastated  land 
and  went  to  Mizpah  where  the  governorship  of 
Gedaliah,  the  son  of  Ahikam,  offered  at  least  the 
feeble  prospect  of  an  independent  national  existence. 

This  hope  was  speedily  shattered.  Gedaliah  was 
murdered  by  one  of  his  countrymen.  The  people 
were  threatened  by  the  anger  of  the  Babylonian 
emperor  who  was  sure  to  wreak  vengeance  on  them 
for  the  murder  of  his  governor.  They  therefore 
planned  to  flee  to  Egypt,  and  they  came  to  Jeremiah 
for  advice.  It  was  a  desperate  dilemma.  On  the 
one  hand,  there  was  the  danger  of  cruel  punishment 
at  the  hands  of  the  Babylonian  king;  on  the  other 
hand,  there  was  the  risk  of  sealing  the  doom  of  the 
country  by  depopulating  it.  Ten  days  the  prophet 
had  to  wait  for  an  answer  from  God.1  When  the 
answer  finally  came  it  was  a  command  to  stay  where 
they  were:  the  interests  of  the  country  were  to  be 
regarded  above  the  interests  of  the  individual. 

The  people  evidently  did  not  subscribe  to  that 
principle.     Despite  their  solemn  assurance  to  accept 

'xliii,  7. 


THE  PROPHET  JEREMIAH  93 

the  decision  of  Jeremiah,  they  fled  to  Egypt  and  car- 
ried off  the  aged  prophet  with  them.  There  they  cut 
the  thread  which  had  connected  them  with  their 
home  land  and  their  religion.  They  rapidly  fell  back 
into  the  crassest  forms  of  idolatry.  They  worshipped 
the  goddess  Ishtar,  "the  Queen  of  Heaven,"  and  the 
women,  assisted  by  the  men,  baked  sacrificial  cakes 
for  her,  vulgarly  boasting  that  they  were  so  much 
better  off  now  in  their  idolatry  than  they  had  ever 
been  before.  We  can  vividly  imagine  the  feelings  of 
the  prophet  when  he  witnessed  the  backsliding  of  his 
people,  having  spent  a  life  of  struggle  and  suffering 
in  their  service.  With  all  the  energy  which  the  hoary 
prophet  can  command  he  violently  protests  against 
this  utter  disregard  of  his  life-work.  He  prophesies 
the  disappearance  of  Judaism  in  Egypt:  "Behold,  I 
have  sworn  by  my  great  name,  saith  the  Lord,  that 
my  name  shall  no  more  be  uttered  in  the  mouth  of 
any  man  of  Judah  in  all  the  land  of  Egypt,  saying, 
'as  the  Lord  liveth.'  Behold,  I  shall  watch  over  them 
for  evil,  and  not  for  good;  and  all  the  men  of  Judah 
that  are  in  the  land  of  Egypt  shall  be  consumed  by 
the  sword  and  by  the  famine,  until  there  be  an  end 
of  them."1— and  with  a  curse  on  his  lips  Jeremiah 
disappears  from  our  view. 

As  for  his  end,  we  know  as  little  about  his  death 
as  we  know  about  his  birth.  A  late  legend  narrates 
that  he  was  killed  by  his  own  fellow-Jews  in  Egypt. 
The  legend  is  psychologically  true.  It  was  the  proper 
finale    of    a    life    of    unselfish    devotion.      It    must 

•xliv,  26-27. 


94  PAST  AND  PRESENT 


have  been  rapture  for  Jeremiah  to  die  for  his  people 
for  which  he  had  done  infinitely  more — for  which  he 
had  lived. 

The  life  work  of  Jeremiah  seemed  to  be  lost.  But 
it  was  not.  It  bore  fruit  a  thousandfold.  The  exiles 
in  Babylonia,  "the  better  figs,"  followed  the  prophet's 
advice,  established  themselves  in  the  new  country 
and  gathered  new  strength  for  the  future.  They  began 
to  ponder  over  their  past.  They  realized  that  a  great 
task  had  been  laid  upon  them  and  that  they  had  neg- 
lected it,  and  what  the  most  eloquent  words  of  the 
prophet  were  powerless  to  accomplish  was  brought 
about  by  bitter  experience  in  the  land  of  exile.  When 
Cyrus  issued  the  decree  permitting  the  Jews  to  return 
to  Palestine  and  restore  their  old  commonwealth, 
there  was  a  small  but  God-inspired  remnant  which  was 
prepared  to  make  its  way  homeward.  Ezra,  the 
second  Moses,  gave  the  old-new  state  its  constitution. 
He  understood  that  prophetic  Judaism  was  indispens- 
able as  an  ideal,  as  a  stimulus,  as  a  guidance,  but  that 
it  was  too  lofty  and  exalted  to  serve  ds  a  lever  in  the 
grey  everyday  existence  of  man,  and  he,  therefore, 
proceded  to  turn  the  solid  goldbars  of  prophecy  into 
small  coin.  In  this  new  form  the  prophetic  ideals 
gained  wide  currency  among  the  Jewish  people; 
they  became  an  integral  part  of  its  spiritual  life,  and 
Judaism  was  saved.  Thus  Jeremiah's  life  and  work 
continue  to  pour  forth  their  blessings  through  various 
channels,  and  it  may  after  all  be  due  to  his  influence 
if,  at  this  tremendous  distance  of  time  and  space, 
we  are  gathered  here  in  America,  animated  by  a  new 
spirit  and  filled  with  a  new  hope  for  a  Jewish  future, 
and  hearken  to  the  words  of  the  Prophet  Jeremiah. 


VII 

THE   HEBREW  LANGUAGE 

a  bird's  eye  view* 

FROM  the  early  days  of  antiquity  down  to  our 
own  times  the  Jews  have  stood  forth  like  a 
sphynx  in  the  midst  of  humanity.  It  was  not 
national  conceit  nor  hankering  after  notoriety  which 
made  them  appear  in  this  singular  role.  It  was  rather 
the  grave  and  profound  realization  of  their  innermost 
nature  which  forced  upon  them  the  consciousness  of 
being  an  exceptional,  a  Chosen,  people.  And  not 
only  the  Jews  themselves,  but  even  the  nations,  whose 
sentiments  towards  the  Jews  were  far  from  friendly, 
could  not  suppress  a  feeling  of  astonishment  and 
wonderment  in  the  face  of  this  singular  exemplar  of  a 
national  group — a  feeling  which  already  in  the  early 
beginnings  of  the  Jewish  race  found  expression  in  the 
pregnant  words  of  the  heathen  prophet:  "Lo,  it  is  a 
people  that  shall  dwell  alone,  and  shall  not  be  counted 
among  the  nations"  (Numbers  xxiii,  9). 

These  words  of  a  pagan  seer  of  thousands  of  years 
ago,  which  define  the  true  nature  of  Israel  far  more 


*Lecture  delivered  at  the  opening  of  the  Hebrew  Courses 
for  Adults  in  Berlin  (Germany)  on  May  1,  1899.  Published  in 
German  in  Israelitischer  Lehrer  und  Cantor,  monthly  supplement 
to  the  Juedische  Presse  (Berlin),  Nos.  9,  10  and  11  (October  5, 
November  2  and  December  1,  1899.) 


%  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

accurately  than  the  latter  day  attempts  to  squeeze 
this  unique  phenomenon  into  the  conventional  frame- 
work of  human  groupings,  come  back  to  us  forcibly 
tonight  as  we  are  assembled  in  the  metropolis  of 
German  civilization,  at  the  eventide  of  the  century 
of  steam  and  electricity,  to  resume  the  study  of  a 
language  whose  beginnings  are  lost  in  the  gray  dawn 
of  history  and  whose  traces  carry  us  back  to  the 
pasture  lands  of  Mesopotamia.  Seldom,  if  ever,  has 
a  people  or  a  language  made  such  a  gigantic  excur- 
sion across  the  expanses  of  time  and  space  as  has 
the  people  and  the  language  of  the  Hebrews.  To  be 
sure,  in  the  course  of  the  nineteenth  century  the 
hieroglyphic  monument  of  Egypt  and  the  cuneiform 
writings  of  Assyria  and  Babylonia  have  shaken  off  the 
dust  under  which  they  had  been  buried  throughout  the 
ages,  and  moved  from  their  resting  places  in  the  far-off 
East  into  the  cabinets  of  European  and  American 
scholars.  But  these  relics  of  a  dead  past  have  never 
risen  to  life.  They  are  scientific  corpses,  the  object  of 
the  anatomist's  scalpel  which  serves  purely  academic 
interests,  whereas  the  Hebrew  language  stands  before 
us  as  a  living  organism,  full  of  youth  and  vigor, 
striving  with  irrepressible  energy  after  new  forms  of 
expression,  and  not  only  looking  backward  upon  a 
venerable  past  but  also  looking  forward  to  a  glorious 
future.  The  destinies  of  this  unique  phenomenon  in 
the  linguistic  annals  of  humanity  may  be  appro- 
priately recalled  on  this  occasion,  by  way  of  introduc- 
tion to  the  Hebrew  Courses  for  the  opening  of  which 
we  are  gathered  here  tonight. 

The  Hebrew  language,  as  is  known  to  all  of  you,  is 
a  member  of  the  Semitic  group  of  human  speech.     Its 


THE  HEBREW  LAiNGUAGE  97 

next  of  kin  is  Aramaic,  which  by  its  plainness  of 
form  and  simplicity  of  expression  was  particularly 
fitted  to  become  the  medium  of  daily  intercourse 
among  large  sections  of  humanity  and  in  this 
capacity  actually  proved  a  dangerous  rival  of  Hebrew 
throughout  the  centuries.  At  a  somewhat  further 
distance  stands  Arabic,  with  which  Hebrew  has 
cultivated  an  intimate  relationship  during  various 
stages  of  its  history.  Ethiopic,  the  language  of 
ancient  Abessynia,  and  the  Assyro-Babylonian  lan- 
guage, represented  on  the  cuneiform  monuments, 
which,  despite  their  linguistic  kinship  to  Hebrew,  have 
not  influenced  the  latter  to  any  appreciable  extent, 
may  be  left  out  of  consideration  in  the  following 
account. 

The  beginnings  of  Hebrew,  as  was  intimated  above, 
lose  themselves  in  pre-historic  times.  But,  judging  by 
analogy,  we  may  confidently  assert  that  the  Hebrew 
language,  long  before  its  manifestation  in  literary 
form,  served  as  a  vehicle  of  the  spoken  word.  The 
first  written  monuments  of  the  Hebrew  tongue  are 
embodied  in  the  Scriptures.1  The  Bible — this  no 
serious  student  will  deny — forms  but  a  part,  or,  more 
correctly,  a  fraction  of  the  ancient  national  literature 
of  the  Hebrews.  Yet,  even  in  this  curtailed  form  the 
Bible  stands  forth,  to  use  the  apt  metaphor  of  a 
recent  writer,  as  the  "Sun  of  the  World's  Literature," 
and  even  those  who  refuse  to  see  in  it  a  divinely 
inspired   book   place    it   in    the   fore-front   of   man's 


1  The  so-called  linguistic  glosses  in  the  Tell-Amara    Tablets 
are  Canaanitish,  and  not  Hebrew. 


98  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

literary  achievements  as  the  ethical  manual  of  the 
human  race. 

It  is  true,  attempts  have  been  made  to  contest  the 
uniqueness  of  the  biblical  writings  by  setting  up 
against  them  the  writings  of  ancient  Greece.  But  the 
Bible  has  no  reason  to  fear  this  comparison.  No  one 
will  deny  that  the  literary  manifestations  of  the  Greek 
genius  have  affected  profoundly  the  civilization  of  the 
world,  and  the  Sun  of  Homer,  to  use  Schiller's  well- 
known  phrase,  equally  smiles  upon  us.  But  we  must 
not  forget  that  the  Sun  of  Homer  smiles  only  upon 
the  fortunate  few  who  enjoy  life's  external  graces, 
whereas  the  Sun  of  the  Bible  penetrates  into  the 
proudest  palaces  and  the  humblest  shanties;  that  the 
Sun  of  Homer  smiles,  spreading  a  bewitchingly 
beautiful  glimmer  over  the  surface  of  life,  whereas 
the  Sun  of  the  Bible  radiates  warmth  and  strength,  and 
has  called  into  being  a  system  of  morality,  which  has 
become  the  cornerstone  of  human  civilization. 

Now  while  it  is  the  incomparable  content  which 
stamps,  the  period  of  biblical  literature  as  the  classic  era 
in  the  history  of  Hebrew,  this  is  no  less  true  of  the  form, 
of  the  language,  in  which  that  literature  is  couched. 
The  whole  freshness  and  vigor  of  a  soil  which  once 
upon  a  time  flowed  with  milk  and  honey  and  the 
whole  loftiness  and  strength  of  the  cedars  of  Lebanon 
are  mirrored  in  this  language,  marked  as  it  is  by 
hammering  force  and  captivating  charm  at  one  and 
the   same  time. 

However,  this  happy  condition  lasted  only  so  long 
as  the  Hebrew  language  was  able  to  draw  the  natural 
juices    from    its    native   soil.      In    the    sixth    century 


THE  HEBREW  LANGUAGE  99 

before  the  Common  Era  Hebrew  received  the  first 
dangerous  shock.  After  a  desperate  struggle,  Judah 
and  Jerusalem  were  subdued  by  Nebukadnezzar 
and  the  Jews  were  transplanted  to  Babylonia.  The 
national  edifice  of  Israel  and  the  structure  of  its 
tongue  were  shaken  by  tremendous  convulsions. 
The  Hebrew  language  seemed  to  breathe  forth  its 
soul  in  heart-rending  lamentations,  and  the  inspired 
Levites,  who  but  a  little  while  ago  had  sung  the  praise 
of  the  Lord  in  triumphant  psalms,  now  sat  weeping 
by  the  rivers  of  Babylon,  and,  hanging  their  harps 
upon  the  willows,  indignantly  protested:  "How 
shall  we  sing  the  Lord's  song  in  a  foreign  land?" 

And  while  the  pious  Levites  refused  to  touch  the 
Hebrew  lyre  for  fear  of  violating  the  sanctity  of  the 
national  tongue,  the  people  at  large  turned  away  from 
the  language  of  their  fathers,  prompted  by  considera- 
tions of  a  less  lofty  nature.  It  would  seem  that  al- 
ready then  a  goodly  part  of  the  Judean  captives  in 
Babylonia  exchanged  their  ancestral  Hebrew  for  the 
more  convenient  Aramaic,  which  had  gained  wide 
currency  in  the  Babylonian  empire  and  also  served  as 
a  vehicle  of  diplomatic  intercourse  throughout  the 
lands  of  Western  Asia.  It  was  the  first  manifestation 
of  the  process  of  disintegration  which  made  these 
captives  eventually  disappear  in  the  surging  sea  of 
Eastern  humanity. 

Fortunately,  however,  there  was  a  faithful  remnant 
which  was  steadfast  in  its  loyalty  to  the  religious 
and  national  traditions  of  Judaism  and,  responding  to 
the  noble  summons  of  Cyrus,  the  conqueror  of  the 
Babylonian  world  power,    was    courageous    enough 


100  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

to  return  to  the  desolate  land  of  their  fathers  and,  in  the 
face  of  seemingly  insurmountable  obstacles,  lay  the 
foundations  for  a  new  Jewish  commonwealth.  Need- 
less to  say  the  national  language  returned  with  the 
exiles  to  its  ancient  soil.  But  the  hardships  of  the 
transplantation  and  the  sojourn  in  an  Aramaic- 
speaking  environment  for  two  generations  were  bound 
to  leave  their  impress  upon  its  development.  The 
influence  of  Aramaic  is  clearly  discernible  in  the  lan- 
guage of  the  new  commonwealth,  and,  instead  of  the 
lofty  cedars  of  the  Lebanon,  the  mournful  willows  of 
Babylon  are  now  reflected  in  it. 

Yet,  even  in  this  post-exilic  stage,  which,  in  contra- 
distinction from  the  preceding  golden  age,  has  been 
called  the  silver  age  of  the  Hebrew  language,  the 
national  literature  of  the  Jews  can  boast  of  writings 
which  may  fully  claim  their  place  side  by  side  with 
the  most  perfect  achievements  of  the  earlier  period. 
It  was  about  the  same  time  that  Ezra,  the  second 
Moses,  as  he  was  appropriately  styled  by  subsequent 
generations,  instituted  a  custom  which  at  first  sight 
seems  of  no  particular  consequence  and  which  never- 
theless proved  of  decisive  importance  for  the  future 
of  Judaism  and,  more  especially,  for  the  preservation 
of  the  Hebrew  language.  We  refer  to  the  practice  of 
reading  the  Law  in  the  original  Hebrew  as  part  of 
public  worship  on  the  official  day  of  rest,  the  Sabbath, 
as  well  as  on  Mondays  and  Thursdays  when  the  people 
congregated  in  their  market  places  for  the  exchange 
of  their  wares.  As  a  result  of  this  simple  custom, 
the  Hebrew  language  has  been  enshrined  in  the 
scrolls  of  the  Law,  and  the  parchment  of  the  Torah  has 


THE  HEBREW  LANGUAGE  101 

rendered  the  sacred  tongue  immune  against  the 
ravages  of  time  and  has  enabled  it  to  pass  unscathed 
through  the  flames  of  hatred  and  persecution  which 
threatened  to  destroy  it. 

Yet,  successful  though  Ezra  was  in  implanting  the 
Hebrew  language  in  the  hearts  of  the  Jewish  people, 
he  was  powerless  to  prevent  its  disappearance  from 
the  mouths  of  the  Jews.  For  the  Aramaic  language, 
being  pliable  and  adaptable,  took  an  ever  firmer  hold 
of  the  lower  classes  of  the  people  and  soon  became 
their  vernacular.  The  upper  classes  continued  to 
speak  Hebrew,  which  also  remained  the  literary 
language  of  the  Jews,  until  the  second  century  after 
the  Common  Era.  The  so-called  Apocrypha,  which 
mostly  date  from  that  period,  were  originally  written 
in  Hebrew,  though,  characteristically  enough  they  were 
soon  lost  in  the  original  and  are  preserved  only  in 
their  Greek  translations.  The  text  of  one  of  these 
Apocrypha,  the  "Wisdom  of  Sira,"  was  but  recently 
discovered  by  Professor  Schechter  and  exhibits  a  pure 
and  vigorous  Hebrew. 

The  most  important  literary  monument  of  the  post- 
exilic  silver  age  is  the  Mishna,  written  in  a  Hebrew 
which,  despite  the  copious  admixture  of  foreign 
elements,  particularly  of  Greek  and  Latin  origin, 
represents  a  natural  and  organic  development  of  the 
biblical  idiom.  However,  the  inroads  of  Aramaic 
become  more  and  more  threatening.  The  Jewish 
people  which,  groaning  under  the  heavy  yoke  of 
Rome,  had  to  strain  every  nerve  in  order  to  maintain 
its  bare  life  was  not  in  a  position  to  watch  over  the 
purity  of  its  national  tongue.     As  a  result,  Aramaic 


102  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

presses  more  and  more  forward  until  it  gradually 
forces  its  way  into  the  exclusive  circles  of  the  learned 
and  the  sacred  precincts  of  literature.  On  the  vast 
Aramaic  expanse  of  Talmudic  literature  oneencounters 
but  casually  refreshing  oases  of  Hebrew.  True, 
in  some  lands  of  the  Diaspora,  whither  the  Jews  had 
been  scattered  after  the  destruction  of  the  second 
Jewish  commonwealth,  we  witness  the  slow  beginnings 
of  a  Neo-Hebraic  literature,  but  in  the  center  of 
Judaism,  which  was  now  located  in  Babylonia, 
governed  at  that  time  by  the  Neo-Persians,  Aramaic, 
which  was  predominant  in  vast  sections  of  the  Neo- 
Persian  empire,  remained  the  spoken  and  written 
language  of  the  Jews.  This  state  of  affairs  continued 
until  the  seventh  century  after  the  Common  Era  when 
the  Arabic  hordes,  with  the  irresistible  enthusiasm 
of  youth,  overran  the  decrepit  Neo-Persian  world 
power  and,  with  the  sword  of  the  prophet  in  their 
hands,  made  it  subject  to  the  new  faith.  Age-worn 
Aramaic  is  swept  away  by  the  rising  wave,  and  its 
place  is  taken  by  young  and  vigorous  Arabic. 

Ere  long  the  Jews  of  Babylonia,  too,  began  to  speak 
the  kindred  language  of  the  Prophet  of  Medina.  In 
the  tenth  century  Arabic  is  so  firmly  entrenched  in 
Babylonian  Jewry  that  a  man  of  the  calibre  of  Saadia 
Gaon  writes  his  works  in  Arabic.  One  of  Saadia's 
principal  achievements  is  his  translation  of  the  Bible 
into  Arabic,  by  means  of  which  he  hoped  to  lead  back 
the  new  generation  of  Jews  to  their  most  treasured 
possessions.  Through  these  endeavors,  and  even 
more  so  under  the  stimulus  of  the  Karaitic  schism 
which  had   taken  place  somewhat  earlier,  the  seeds 


THE  HEBREW  LANGUAGE  103 

were  planted  for  a  new  future  of  the  Hebrew  lan- 
guage. The  Karaites  who  repudiated  the  Talmudic 
writings  and  recognized  the  Bible  as  their  only  source 
of  religious  authority  were  naturally  impelled  to  apply 
themselves  with  particular  fervor  to  the  study  of  the 
only  sacred  monument  they  now  possessed;  the 
slogan  given  out  by  their  founder  was,  therefore, 
"Search  diligently  in  the  Holy  Writ!"  The  Rabban- 
ites,  however,  as  the  adherents  of  traditional  Judaism 
were  now  termed,  refused  to  be  outdone  by  their 
opponents,  and, as  a  result,  a  rivalry  sprang  up,  noble 
in  its  motives  as  well  as  in  its  accomplishments, 
which  ushered  in  a  new  classic  era  for  the  Hebrew 
language,  an  era  in  which  philology,  literature  and 
poetry  blossomed  forth  in  unprecedented  magnific- 
ence.1 

The  seeds  of  this  new  culture  attained  to  their 
fullest  bloom  in  another  land  of  Islam,  in  Moorish 
Spain,  which,  beginning  with  the  tenth  century, 
gradually  became  the  leading  center  of  Judaism. 
One  has  to  pile  color  upon  color  in  order  to  throw  upon 
the  canvas  a  semblance  of  the  splendor  which  sur- 
rounded that  glorious  period.  The  luxurious  mag- 
nificence of  the  Orient,  the  grave  earnestness  of 
Judaism  and  the  well-poised  cheerfulness  of  Hellas, — 
all  of  them  met  in  the  focus  of  Jewish-Arabic  culture, 
which  for  more  than  three  centuries  stands  forth  as 
the  second  classic  period  in  the  history  of  the  Hebrew 

(/Modern  scientific  research  is  inclined  to  question  the  effect 
of  Karaism  upon  the  development  of  Neo-Hebraic  culture  in  the 
lands  of  Islam,  considering  this  culture  rather  the  work  of  interna! 
orces  within  Judaism.] 


104  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

language.  There  was  not  a  single  branch  of  human 
or  divine  knowledge,  not  a  single  department  in  the 
intellectual  laboratory  of  man  which  was  not  culti- 
vated with  love  and  assiduity  within  the  confines  of 
Hebrew  literature.  A  wonderful  galaxy  of  Hebrew 
writers,  poets  and  scholars  moves  across  our  field  of 
vision.  Nevertheless,  the  spoken  language  of  the 
Jews  was  as  theretofore  Arabic,  which  is  also  used  as  a 
literary  medium  side  by  side  with  Hebrew.  Judah 
Halevi  and  Moses  Maimonides  may  serve  as  a  typical 
illustration  of  this  linguistic  partnership.  The  former, 
"star  and  beacon  of  his  age,"  the  classic  singer  of 
Zion's  joy  and  sorrow,  as  well  as  the  latter,  styled  and 
considered  "the  Glory  of  his  Generation,"  whose 
Hebrew  code  of  laws  towers  mountain-like  over  the 
literature  of  post-biblical  Judaism,  wrote  their  philo- 
sophic works  in  Arabic.  The  reason  for  this  curious 
phenomenon  may,  at  least  in  part,  be  safely  sought  in 
the  difficulty  of  discussing  problems  of  abstract 
thought  in  Hebrew,  which  seemed  more  fitted  for  the 
description  of  concrete  objects.  Yet,  the  verdict  of 
history,  which  is  the  inexorable  judge  of  human 
achievements,  implies  a  severe  condemnation  of  their 
timidity.  For  whereas  the  Hebrew  versions  of  the 
philosophic  writings  of  that  period,  circulating  in 
ever  new  editions  among  the  Jews  of  the  entire  globe, 
have  been  instrumental  in  stimulating  and  purifying 
the  religious  thought  of  Judaism  and,  in  spite  of  their 
exceedingly  uncouth  linguistic  form,  have  proved  the 
stepping  stone  for  the  modern  philosophic  Hebrew 
style  in  which  the  subtlest  subjects  of  inquiry  may  be 
discussed    with    accuracy    and    yet    with    elegance; 


THE  HEBREW  LANGUAGE  105 

whereas  the  Hebrew  translations  of  those  writings  are 
even  today  part  and  parcel  of  the  intellectual  equip- 
ment of  every  cultured  Jew  in  the  lands  in  which 
Jewish  life  is  still  genuinely  Jewish,  the  Arabic 
originals  of  those  works  have  remained  practically 
unread  and  unknown  and  were  rescued  but  recently 
from  the  dust  of  the  centuries  to  serve  the  interests 
of  a  purely  academic  scholarship.1 

Maimonides  represents  the  zenith  of  Arabic- 
Jewish  culture.  His  death  marks  the  beginning  of  its 
rapid  decline.  Threatening  clouds  darken  the  skies 
of  Jewry,  and,  with  the  Christian  conquest  of  Spain, 
they  thicken  into  impenetrable  gloom,  weirdly  illu- 
minated by  the  flash  of  auto-da-fes .  Jewish  history 
becomes  one  big  blood-soaked  page.  The  tender 
blossoms  of  poetry  and  belles-lettres  wither  in  the 
choking  darkness  of  the  dismal  Ghettos.  Only  the 
torch  of  religion  radiates  light  and  warmth  and  enables 
the  martyred  nation  to  proceed  on  its  dark  and  icy 
path. 

To  be  sure,  even  now  it  was  only  necessary  for  a 
few  rays  to  penetrate  the  heavy  clouds  in  order  to 
bring  again  to  life — as  was  the  case  in  Italy — the 
drooping  flowers  of  poetry  and  literature.  But  in  the 
newly  established  center  of  Judaism,  in  Poland,  as 
well  as  in  other  countries  there  is  an  unmistakable 
tendency  to  neglect  the  civilization  of    all     humani- 

1  The  philosophic  work  of  Ibn  Gebirol,  the  "Fountain  of 
Life,"  which  was  not  fortunate  enough  to  find  a  translator  until 
centuries  later,  was  entirely  lost  to  Judaism,  though  it  influenced 
profoundly  medieval  Christian  thought.  The  Arabic  original 
has  not  yet  been  found. 


106  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

tarian  phases  of  literature,  and  to  concentrate  the 
mental  energy  of  the  Jews  upon  the  Talmud,  which 
whets  the  brain,  or  upon  the  Cabbala,  which  heats 
the  imagination.  This  tendency  remained  the  key- 
note of  Jewish  life  until  the  second  half  of  the 
eighteenth  century  when  Moses  Mendelssohn  ap- 
peared on  the  scene. 

With  Moses  Mendelssohn — whether  through  Moses 
Mendelssohn  is  a  question  which  need  not  be  dis- 
cussed on  this  occasion — begins  a  completely  new 
phase  in  the  history  of  Judaism, — not  so  much  because 
of  the  external  changes  which  have  affected  so  radic- 
ally the  position  of  Jewry  in  the  midst  of  the  nations, 
as  on  account  of  the  inner  transformations  which  have 
since  taken  place  in  the  intellectual  life  of  the  Jews. 
Mendelssohn,  who  was  an  accomplished  Hebrew 
scholar  and  wrote  it  in  masterly  fashion,  translated  the 
Bible  into  German  with  two  objects  in  view:  to  arouse 
in  his  coreligionists  their  innate  love  for  a  pure 
Hebrew  diction  and  to  enable  them  to  partake  of  the 
fruits  of  the  new  German  culture. 

During  his  lifetime  and  partly  with  his  assistance  a 
coterie  of  Hebrew  litterateurs  founded  the  first 
Hebrew  monthly  under  the  name  Ha-meassef  ("The 
Gatherer"),  which  engaged  in  a  vigorous  campaign  for 
the  diffusion  of  European  enlightenment  among  the 
Jews  of  the  Ghetto.  Ere  long  victory  perched  on 
their  banners — but  it  was  a  Pyrrhic  victory.  With 
the  alertness  so  characteristic  of  our  race  the  Jews, 
using  the  Hebrew  language  as  a  ladder,  scaled  the 
wall  of  German  civilization  and  thereupon  threw 
away  the  ladder  which  had  become  superfluous. 


THE  HEBREW  LANGUAGE  107 

After  years  of  bitter  struggle  the  Jews  were  finally 
granted  the  rights  of  citizenship.  But  the  prisoner 
who  has  languished  for  years  in  a  gloomy  dungeon 
cannot  accustom  himself  so  easily  to  the  light  of  day. 
The  use  which  the  Jews  made  of  their  newly-won 
liberty  turned  its  blessing  into  a  curse.  They  did  not 
accept  their  liberty  as  a  matter  of  course,  as  a  natural 
right  due  to  every  one  created  in  the  image  of  God. 
They  rather  looked  upon  it  as  a  special  act  of  grace 
for  which  they  thought  they  had  to  be  perpetually 
grateful.  The  form  which  this  gratitude  took  is 
known  to  all  of  us.  With  an  irreverance  which  runs 
counter  to  the  innermost  nature  of  the  Jew  our  people 
began  to  throw  off  everything  that  was  reminiscent  of 
Judaism.  Jewish  life  and  thought  began  to  be  re- 
modeled, not  in  accordance  with  the  inner  laws  of 
Jewish  development,  but  in  obedience  to  hints  from 
without.  The  majestic  and  venerable  figure  of 
Jewish  tradition  was  reduced  to  a  hollow  and  lifeless 
doll,  and  war  was  declared  against  the  most  precious 
possessions  of  the  Jewish  people. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  the  Hebrew  language 
was  among  the  first  victims  of  this  anti-Jewish 
fanaticism  of  the  Jews.  It  sought  safety  in  the 
synagogue,  the  last  haven  of  refuge  of  everything 
Jewish.  But  the  inexorable  pursuers  tracked  her  into 
the  sanctuary  and  insisted  on  driving  her  thence. 
It  is  true  that  during  this  period  of  desertion  and  dis- 
loyalty there  had  arisen  the  Science  of  Judaism. 
But  the  Science  of  Judaism  became  the  possession  of 
a  small  caste  of  scholars — a  differentiation  which  had 
never  been  known  to  exist  in  Jewish  history — whilst 


108  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

the  bulk  of  the  people  sank  to  ever  lower  depths  of 
ignorance,  such  as  finds  few,  if  any,  parallels  in  the 
annals  of  Judaism.  Judaism  seemed  to  be  doomed. 
Its  death-knell  had  sounded,  and  soon  it  would 
breathe  forth  its  last  never  to  rise  again.  But 
suddenly  lo  and  behold,  a  miracle  took  place.  The 
eternal  wanderer  who,  yearning  for  death,  had  hurled 
himself  into  the  abyss  of  destruction,  shook  off  his 
stupor  and,  with  an  energy  and  vitality  which  seem 
inexhaustible,  jumped  out  of  the  depth  of  the  pit  to 
new  life.  Instead  of  the  icy  death-dealing  storms  of 
winter  we  now  witness  the  gentle  life-giving  breezes  of 
springtime.  Few  of  us  will  doubt  that  this  miraculous 
transformation  owes  its  origin  to  the  Jewish  East,  to 
the  influences  which  have  emanated  from  the  great 
center  of  Judaism  in  Russia. 

For  the  stimulus  which  had  gone  forth  from 
Mendelssohn  and  had  penetrated  into  the  Ghettos  of 
Eastern  Europe  led  there  to  entirely  different  results 
than  it  had  done  in  the  West  of  Europe.  There, 
tco,  Mendelssohn's  influence  tended  to  reawaken  the 
love  for  the  Hebrew  language  and  the  striving  for 
general  European  culture,  and  already  at  the  end  of 
the  eighteenth  century  we  notice  a  few  swallows,  the 
harbingers  of  the  approaching  spring.  Yet  it  took 
many  years  before  the  spring  actually  came.  It  was 
only  in  the  fourth  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century 
that  Isaac  Baer  Levinsohn,  the  Mendelssohn  of 
Russian  Jewry,  started  upon  his  career,  championing 
in  his  numerous  epoch-making  works  the  cause  of 
Hebrew  and  of  general  education.  As  if  by  magic, 
there  sprang  out  of  the  ground  a  little  army  of  talented 


THE  HEBREW  LANGUAGE  109 

writers  who  cast  the  thoughts  of  modern  Europe  into 
the  mould  of  ancient  Hebrew.  The  Hebrew  language 
renewed  its  youth  and  served  again  as  the  vehicle  of 
thought  for  every  branch  of  human  knowledge. 
Mathematics,  astronomy,  medicine,  philosophy  and, 
above  all,  poetry  and  fiction  once  more  find  their 
representation  in  Hebrew  literature.  Out  of  the  vast 
array  of  literary  talent  the  following  three  names  may 
be  singled  out  which  laid  their  stamp  upon  that 
period  of  Hebrew  literature,  the  period  of  Enlighten- 
ment, or  Haskala:  the  novelist  Abraham  Mapu, 
the  publicist  Perez  Smolenskin,  and  the  poet  Judah 
Leib  Gordon. 

Unfortunately,  the  Jewry  of  Eastern  Europe,  like 
that  of  the  West,  did  not  pass  altogether  unscathed 
through  this  cultural  transformation.  At  one  time  it 
seemed  that  Russian  Jewry  would  fall  a  prey  to  the 
same  fatal  error  which  had  undermined  Jewish  life  in 
the  West.  When,  during  the  reign  of  Alexander  II, 
the  sun  of  freedom  began  to  smile  upon  the  Jews,  a 
part  of  Russian  Jewry  manifested  the  same  ugly 
tendency  towards  assimilation  and  self-annihilation 
which  had  been  observed  among  the  Jews  of  Western 
Europe.  There  was  a  repulsive  and  almost  panicky 
desertion  of  everything  Jewish.  The  rock  of  Judaism 
showed  ominous  signs  of  attrition,  foreshadowing  its 
utter  annihilation  in  a  more  or  less  distant  future. 
The  poet  Judah  Leib  Gordon,  who  wrote  the  Hebrew 
language  with  the  force  and  purity  of  an  Isaiah,  gave 
voice  to  these  forebodings  in  verses  full  of  doubt  and 
despair: 


110  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

Who's  there  who  would  reveal  the  future  times, 
And  give  me  assurance  that  I  am  not  the  last 
Who  Zion's  thoughts  into  Hebrew  forms  can  cast, 
And  you're  not  the  last  to  read  my  Hebrew  rhymes? 

Poets,  they  say,  are  prophets.  This  time,  however, 
the  fears  of  our  poet  did  not  come  true.  To  prove 
their  groundlessness  the  Jews  of  Russia  had  to  pay 
a  heavy  price.  The  assimilated  sections  of  Russian 
Jewry  had  to  be  taught  in  an  emphatic,  not  to  say, 
striking  manner  the  duty  they  owed  to  their  people, 
and,  not  having  drifted  too  far  from  their  Jewish 
moorings,  they  took  the  lesson  to  heart  and  speedily 
returned  into  the  fold.  The  Zionist  idea  which  in  its 
modern  form  now  marches  victoriously  through  the 
lands  of  Eastern  Europe  assumed  concrete  shape, 
and  with  the  rise  of  the  Zionist  movement  there  began 
a  great  activity  in  Hebrew  literature  which  opens 
up  before  us  new  and  undreamt  of  vistas.  Innumer- 
able publications  dealing  with  every  phase  of  life  and 
thought  are  brought  out  in  uninterrupted  succession. 
Numerous  magazines  and  newspapers  are  coming  into 
existence  which,  using  the  rejuvenated  idiom  of  the 
Bible  as  their  medium  of  expression,  discuss  the 
events  of  the  day  and  the  problems  of  our  times. 
Writers  of  great  force  and  poets  stamped  with  the 
mark  of  genius  constantly  enter  the  arena  of  Hebrew 
literature.  There  is  no  thought  or  sentiment  stirring 
modern  humanity  which  is  not  echoed  in  the  Hebrew 
language.  Even  the  fin-de-siecle  philosophy  of  Fried- 
rich  Nietzsche  has  clothed  itself  in  the  garb  of  the 
biblical  idiom.  We  may  hold  different  opinions 
as   to   the   advisability   of   introducing   tendencies  of 


THE  HEBREW  LANGUAGE  111 

this  kind  into  Judaism,  but  none  of  us  can  help 
acknowledging  with  admiration  the  wonderful  vi- 
tality of  a  language  which  was  born  on  the  fields  of 
Western  Asia  and  yet  can  reproduce  the  ultra-modern 
catchwords  of  Nietzscheanism  with  scarcely  less 
force  and  pithiness  than  characterize  them  in  the 
mother-tongue  of  the  poet-philosopher.  However, 
we  are  only  at  the  threshold  of  the  new  movement. 
Its  further  progress  can  hardly  be  foreseen,  and  still 
less  foretold. 

These  extraordinary  changes  are  gradually  begin- 
ning to  affect  also  the  Jewish  centers  in  the  West  of 
Europe.  Here,  too,  the  Jews  are  slowly  realizing 
that  it  is  nobler  to  devote  their  energies  to  the  culti- 
vation and  perfection  of  their  individuality  than  to 
consume  them  in  a  futile  attempt  at  self-effacement. 
Here,  too,  the  conviction  is  gaining  ground  that 
Judaism  can  never  attain  to  a  healthy  and  vigorous 
development  until  the  weakened  blood  circulation 
between  the  scattered  limbs  of  Jewry  in  the  West  and 
its  heart  in  the  East  is  restored  to  its  normal  function. 
Here,  too,  we  are  on  the  eve  of  a  future  which  is  full 
of  promise.  The  Hebrew  courses  which  are  being 
organized  in  various  cities  in  Germany  are  the  modest 
primroses  of  this  future.  Let  us  hope  that  the 
tender  shoot  which  tonight  we  confidently  plant 
in  the  soil  of  the  future  may  grow  into  a  mighty  and 
fruitful  tree  and  may  in  a  small  way  assist  in  the 
rejuvenation  and  unification  of  the  Jewish  people. 


VIII 

A   NEW  SPECIMEN   OF   MODERN   BIBLICAL 
EXEGESIS* 

I  APPROACH  the  task  of  reviewing  Professor  Briggs' 
commentary  on  the  Psalms  with  considerable  re- 
luctance. His  book  appears  under  auspices  which 
are  apt  to  silence  the  voice  of  criticism,  and  seem 
to  compel  respect  and  admiration.  It  forms  part  of 
the  International  Critical  Commentary,  a  com- 
prehensive exegetical  enterprise  which  endeavors,  in 
its  own  words,  to  be  "abreast  of  modern  biblical 
scholarship  and,  in  a  measure,  lead  its  van."  It  is 
the  work  of  a  voluminous  theological  writer.  It 
represents,  as  the  author  impressively  informs  us,  the 
product  of  forty  years  of  labor.  It  extends  over  two 
bulky  volumes,  covering  some  eleven  hundred  pages, 
mostly  in  small  compact  type.  It  bristles  with 
learned  abbreviations  and  formulas  and  dazzles  the 
eye  with  philological  references  and  quotations.  It 
possesses,  in  short,  all  the  external  characteristics  of 
a  standard  work,  and  it  has  already  been  hailed  as 


*The  article  was  first  published  in  the  American  Hebrew 
on  July  5,  1907.  It  contains  a  review  of  the  following  work: 
"The  International  Critical  Commentary.  A  Critical  and  Exe- 
getical Commentary  on  the  Book  of  Psalms  by  Charles  Augustus 
Briggs,  D.D.,  D.  Litt.,  Professor  of  Theological  Encyclopaedia 
and  Symbolics,  Union  Theological  Seminary,  New  York,  and 
Emilie  Grace  Briggs,  B.D.,  New  York.  Charles  Scribner's 
Sons.     Vol.  I  (pp.  ex,  422),  1906;  Vol.  II  (pp.  572),  1907." 


114  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

such  by  enthusiastic  and  obliging  critics.  Yet  when 
one  has  unflinchingly  worked  his  way  through  the 
formidable  portals  and  has  finally  penetrated  into  the 
inteiior  of  the  commentary,  one  is  surprised,  nay, 
shocked  to  discover  that  the  pompous  and  magnifi- 
cent entrance  leads — to  a  shanty.  It  is  difficult  to 
give  adequate  expression  to  our  disappointment  over 
the  astounding  discrepancy  between  our  expectations 
and  their  realization,  and  I  openly  confess  that,  being 
averse  to  fault  finding  and  polemics,  I  would  decidedly 
prefer  to  keep  my  sentiments  to  myself.  But  know- 
ing, as  I  do,  that  the  public,  particularly  the  Jewish 
public,  judging  by  externalities  and  titles,  is  likely  to 
accept  this  commentary  as  the  last  word  of  biblical 
science,  and  remembering  the  alertness  with  which 
one  of  our  "scientific"  rabbis  not  so  long  ago  em- 
bodied similar  "results"  in  a  book  of  devotion,  I  con- 
sider myself  in  duty  bound  to  take  this  painful  task 
upon  me  and  to  endeavor  to  show  that  the  critical 
up-to-date  commentary  of  Professor  Briggs  is  neither 
critical  nor  up-to-date,  but  represents  in  scope  and 
method  a  new  specimen  of  that  arbitrary  and  un- 
scientific tendency  in  modern  biblical  exegesis  which 
only  contributes  to  discredit  this  branch  of  learning 
in  the  eyes  of  all  sober-minded  scholars  and,  if  not 
checked  in  time,  will  unavoidably  lead  to  its  ruin. 

To  begin  with  the  beginning.  The  series  of  which 
Professor  Briggs'  Psalm  commentary  forms  a  part  is 
called  the  International  Critical  Commentary.  Profes- 
sor Briggs'  work  itself  is  styled  a  Critical  and  Exegeti- 
cal  Commentary,  and  in  the  Editors'  Preface,  which 
is  prefixed  to  every  volume  of  the  series  and  for  which 


NEW  SPECIMEN  OF  BIBLICAL  EXEGESIS         115 

Professor  Briggs  as  co-editor  of  the  Old  Testament 
books  is  personally  responsible,  the  distinguishing 
feature  of  the  whole  enterprise  is  summed  up  in  the 
leading  sentence:  "The  Commentaries  will  be  in- 
ternational and  inter-confessional,  and  will  be  free 
from  polemical  and  ecclesiastical  bias."  What  is  more 
natural  then  that,  building  on  the  assurance  of  author 
and  editors,  we  should  expect  to  find  a  commentary 
which  limits  itself  to  an  objective  presentation  and 
examination  of  the  available  material  and  strictly 
eliminates  all  matters  of  belief  which  are  of  necessity 
subjective  and  therefore  incapable  of  scientific  demon- 
stration? Yet,  one  only  has  to  glance  at  the  contents 
of  our  commentary  to  make  the  painful  discovery  that 
Promise  and  Fulfilment  are  far  from  being  identical, 
and  that  Professor  Briggs  the  Commentator  has  no 
regard  whatsoever  for  Professor  Briggs  the  Editor. 
Who,  for  instance,  would  not  feel  astonished  to  find 
in  a  "critical"  commentary  the  assertion,  given  in 
the  form  of  a  theorem  and  a  lengthy  homiletic  corol- 
lary, to  the  effect  that  the  contents  of  the  Psalter 
"give  evidence  to  its  holy  character  as  coming  from 
God  and  leading  to  God"  (p.  xciv), — an  assertion 
which  so  flagrantly  contradicts  the  unbridled  radical- 
ism displayed  in  the  treatment  of  the  text  and  con- 
tents of  the  Psalms  that  one  is  puzzled  whether  this 
"holy  character"  is  meant  to  inhere  in  the  commonly 
accepted  Psalter  or  in  the  considerably  modified  text 
which  Professor  Briggs  presents  in  his  commentary. 
However  this  may  be,  our  astonishment  soon  grows 
into  bewilderment  when  in  our  further  study  of  the 
book  we  constantly  stumble  against  lucubrations  and 


116  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

interpretations  of  an  avowedly  Christological  nature, 
which  may  testify  to  the  author's  loyalty  to  his  faith, 
may  also,  as  edifying  reading,  serve  the  purposes  of 
Practical  or  Homiletical  Exegesis  deliberately  excluded 
from  the  plan  of  the  series  by  its  editors,  but  can 
have  no  place  in  a  critical  inter-confessional  commen- 
tary which  is  supposed  to  be  free  from  polemical  and 
ecclesiastical  bias.  To  be  sure,  Professor  Briggs  is 
by  no  means  original  or  solitary  in  this  Christological 
attitude.  He  who  is  familiar  with  Higher  Biblical 
Criticism  knows  that  even  the  "highest"  critics  are 
not  apt  to  forget  that  they  are  Christian  theologians, 
and  their  lionine  courage  becomes  lamb-like  sub- 
missiveness  when  the  New  Testament  takes  the  place 
of  the  Old.  But  one  has  to  search  far  and  wide  to 
find  a  critic  who  with  such  irritating  persistency  and 
such  undisguised  callousness  thrusts  his  Christian 
beliefs  and  sentiments  in  the  face  of  the  reader.  The 
author  is  in  all  earnestness  convinced  that  Psalm  ii 
(as  well  as  Psalm  ex)  "find  their  only  realization  in 
the  resurrection,  enthronement  and  reign  of  Jesus 
Christ"  (p.  xcvii,  compare  also  i,  p.  13).  Psalm 
xxii  "indeed  gives  a  more  vivid  description  of  the 
sufferings  of  Christ  on  the  cross  than  the  authors  of 
the  Gospels,"  and  this  statement  is  corroborated  by 
an  argumentation  which  is  so  highly  characteristic  of 
the  author's  cast  of  mind  and  is  in  its  scholastic  logic 
so.  vastly  superior  to  the  "Rabbinical  subtleties" 
repudiated  by  our  author  (p.  cvii)  that  I  cannot  resist 
quoting  it  in  full.  Our  author  discusses  the  question 
whether  the  coincidence  of  the  Psalmist's  description 
with  the  sufferings  of  Christ  is  accidental  or  due  to 
"prophetic  anticipation": 


NEW  SPECIMEN  OF  BIBLICAL  EXEGESIS         117 

We  cannot,  quoth  Professor  Briggs  (i,  p.  192),  think 
of  direct  prophecy.  The  reference  to  a  historical  situation 
is  unmistakable.  But  inasmuch  as  the  poet,  like  the  author 
of  the  conception  of  the  suffering  servant  of  Isaiah  II, 
idealizes  the  sufferings  of  Israel,  and  gives  his  sufferer  a 
mediatorial  relation  to  the  nations,  and  does  this  in  order 
to  hold  up  to  the  pious  a  comforting  conception  of  a  divine 
purpose  in  their  sufferings,  we  may  suppose  that  this  ideal 
was  designed  to  prepare  the  minds  of  the  people  of  God  for 
the  ultimate  realization  of  that  purpose  of  redemption  in  a 
sufferer  who  first  summed  up  in  his  historical  experiences 
this  ideal  of  suffering. 

That  the  Old  Testament  is  considered  inferior  and 
a  mere  foil  to  the  New  is  only  to  be  expected  under 
the  circumstances.  Professor  Briggs  is  convinced 
that  the  Psalms  as  well  as  the  Gospels  are  "Books  of 
God."  Yet  "the  Gospels  are  greater  because  they 
set  forth  the  Life  and  Character  of  our  Lord  and 
Saviour"  (Preface,  p.  ix), — an  assertion  which  Jesus 
himself,  who  died  with  a  Psalm  word  on  his  lips,  would 
have  indignantly  repudiated.  The  imprecations  in 
the  Psalter  give  our  author  a  great  deal  of  concern  as 
being  "  the  only  objections  to  the  canonicity  of  the 
Psalter,  seriously  entertained"  (p.  xcvii),  the  more  so 
when  he  calls  to  his  mind  the  unquestionably  more 
numerous  imprecations  in  the  New  Testament.  But 
our  resourceful  theologian  is  by  no  means  in  despair. 
After  a  lengthy  preciously  casuistic  analysis  which  one 
is  amazed  to  find  in  a  Twentieth  Century  "critical" 
commentary  the  author  reaches  the  comforting  con- 
clusion that  "  there  is  a  place  for  imprecations  in  the 
highest  forms  of  Christianity,  only  it  is  more  discrimi- 
nating than  in  the  Old  Testament  religion  and  much 
more  refined"  (p.  a). 


118  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

This  "polemical  and  ecclesiastical  bias"  has  so  tight 
a  grip  on  our  author  that  under  its  influence  he  does 
not  even  shrink  from  a  manoeuvre  which  is  truly  un- 
precedented. Professor  Briggs  knows  of  a  surety 
that  "the  renunciation  of  the  deceit  of  spirit  is  a  very 
high  ethical  ideal,  not  appearing  elsewhere  in  the  Old 
Testament"  (i.  p.  278).  Consequently  the  words 
"and  in  whose  spirit  there  is  no  deceit"  (Psalm  xxxii, 
v.  2)  must  be  done  away  with,  and  the  clause  is  de- 
clared to  be  a  later  gloss.  One  would  naturally  ex- 
pect that  this  "high  ethical  ideal"  was  lovingly  smug- 
gled into  the  Old  Testament  by  a  Christian  hand,  but 
with  curious  inconsistency  our  author  is  kind  enough 
to  admit  that  the  gloss  is  "from  the  school  of  Hebrew 
Wisdom,"  which  even  Professor  Briggs  allows  to  be 
considered  a  part  of  the  Old  Testament.  It  would  be 
ridiculous  even  to  attempt  to  show  how  unfair,  un- 
critical and  unscientific  such  a  method  of  inter- 
pretation must  necessarily  appear,  how  grossly  it 
violates  the  fundamental  logical  prohibition  of  pttitio 
principii,  of  begging  the  question.  But  I  would  like 
to  ask  Professor  Briggs  what  he  would  say  were  we  to 
apply  precisely  the  same  method  to  the  New  Testa- 
ment and  juggle  away  its  "high  ethical  ideals"  by 
declaring  the  sentences  in  question  to  be  later  inter- 
polations? Surely,  we  can  expect  of  so  loyal  a 
Christian  a  fairer  application  of  the  Golden  Rule: 
"Whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should  do  unto  you, 
even  so  do  ye  unto  them." 

In  this  connection,  as  a  particular  aspect  of  ecclesias- 
tical bias,  I  may  mention  the  manner  in  which  Profes- 
sor  Briggs   deals   with    Jewish  authorities.     No  one 


NEW  SPECIMEN  OF  BIBLICAL  EXEGESIS         119 

who  is  aware  with  what  sovereign  contempt  modern 
biblical  exegesis  ignores  the  old  Jewish  commentators 
who  were  the  real  founders  of  this  department  of 
biblical  learning,  and  how  time  and  again  interpreta- 
tions are  propounded  with  an  applomb  of  novelty 
which  one  reads  as  a  matter  of  course  in  commentaries 
like  those  of  Rashi,  Ibn  Ezra  or  Kimhi,  will  ever  ex- 
pect a  different  attitude  on  the  part  of  Professor 
Briggs.  But  what  is  so  irritating  about  his  commen- 
tary is  the  fact  that  it  appears  under  false  pretences 
and  unnecessarily  arouses  expectations  which  it  so 
utterly  fails  to  realize.  When  we  glance  at  the  list 
of  authors  and  writings  at  the  head  of  the  commentary 
we  are  agreeably  struck  by  a  number  of  Jewish  names 
and  titles.  But  when  we  search  for  them  in  the  com- 
mentary itself,  we  are  just  as  painfully  struck  by  their 
absence  and  we  soon  discover  that  they  really  are — 
names  and  titles. 

We  miss,  for  instance,  the  mention  of  Ibn  Ezra  in  passages 
like  Ps.  xxii,  1  and  16,  or  xxx  8,  or  that  of  Rashi  on  Psalm 
lxviii,  28,  whose  explanation  would  have  shown  the  author 
that  the  ancient  versions  did  not  translate,  but,  as  they  so 
frequently  do,  interpret.  However,  it  is  sufficient  to  men- 
tion the  curious  reference  to  "R.  Jehuda  in  Aben  (as  the 
author  is  wont  to  say  instead  of  Ibn)  Ezra"  (ii,  p.  230)  who, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  is  quoted  in  a  different  verse  and  on  an 
altogether  different  word,  or  to  point  to  the  truly  astounding 
statement  (p.  cv)  that  the  Psalm  commentary  of  Saadia, 
"the  earliest  important  interpreter  of  the  Psalms,"  which 
has  till  very  recently  been  the  object  of  numerour  frag- 
mentary editions,  was  published  in  Cracow  as  early  as  in 
1660  (an  inexcusable  confusion  with  the  commentary  of 
Rashi),  in  order  to  establish  beyond  doubt  that  our  author 
never  read,  and  perhaps  never  saw,  an  old  Jewish  com- 
mentary. 


120  PAST  AND  PRESENT 


The  modern  Jewish  commentators  who  write  in 
European  languages  fare  somewhat  better,  although 
the  lack  of  discrimination  with  which  our  author,  in 
pursuance  of  the  chronological  order,  places  the  un- 
flinchingly orthodox  S.  R.  Hirsch  by  the  side  of  his 
life-long  opponent,  the  excessively  radical  Graetz,  or 
the  aesthetically  attractive  Montefiore  by  the  side  of 
the  independent  and  creative  Ehrlich  makes  the  ex- 
tent of  his  familiarity  even  with  these  commentators 
a  matter  of  doubtful  conjecture.  Under  these  cir- 
cumstances I  scarcely  have  the  courage  to  criticize 
our  author  for  his  inacquaintance  with  the  Hebrew 
Psalm  commentary  of  Chayes  (Zhitomir,  1902,  in  the 
series  of  critical  commentaries  in  Hebrew,  published 
by  A.  Kahana),  which,  in  spite  of  its  daring  conjec- 
tures, is  highly  instructive  and  suggestive.  But  I 
cannot  refrain  from  expressing  my  surprise  that  our 
commentator  makes  so  little  use  of  the  unsurpassed 
Hebrew  knowledge  and  wonderful  stylistic  instinct 
of  Ehrlich.  It  is  true,  in  some  instances  Professor 
Briggs  quotes  his  Psalm  commentary,  but  in  innum- 
erable instances  he  does  not,  although  a  glance  at  it 
would  frequently  have  saved  him  from  propounding 
inferior  and  even  preposterous  interpretations.1 

1  Compare,  e.  g.,  Ehrlich's  explanations  of  Ps.  vi,  5,  8; 
xii,  6;  xvi,  3,  7;  xxix;  xlv,  5;  lxviii,  10,  21,  29;  cxxxvii.  His 
emendations,  too,  which  are  always  suggestive,  often  admirable 
and  above  all — Hebrew,  might  have  been  studied  with  profit. 
See  his  commentary  on  Ps.  viii,  3;  xxii,  4  (where  our  author  does 
not  even  notice  the  difficulty),  9;  xxx,  10;  xxxii,  4,  8,  9;  lviii,  2; 
lxviii,  11;  lxxxiv,  11,  19;  ex,  6;  cxlv,  13,  and  innumerable  other 
passages. 


NEW  SPECIMEN  OF  BIBLICAL  EXEGESIS         121 

After  all  these  specimens  one  can  easily  imagine  the 
display  of  our  author's  scholarship  when  it  touches  on 
matters  Jewish  not  strictly  connected  with  biblical 
exegesis,  and  lying  more  in  the  direction  of  the  post- 
biblical  literature  of  the  Rabbis,  or,  as  our  author  is 
wont  to  call  them,  "Rabbins."  In  his  list  of  authors 
and  writers  Professor  Briggs  does  not  fail  to  quote  the 
Talmud.  But  references  like  "the  Baba  Bathra  of 
the  Talmud"  (p.  xix),  or  "Pea  I,  16  b"  (i,  p.  393), 
which  the  reviewer  with  some  difficulty  found  out  to 
mean  Talmud  Yerushalmi,  ed.  Krotoshin,  vol.  I,  fol. 
16  b,  Tractate  Pea,  make  it  probable  that  the  author 
is  not  even  cognizant  of  the  existence  of  a  Palestinian 
and  Babylonian  Talmud,  and  they  are  at  once  charac- 
teristic of  the  sources  frcm  which  our  author  choses 
to  derive  his  knowledge.  Had  Professor  Briggs  had 
access  to  the  original  rabbinical  sources  or,  at  least,  to 
reliable  secondary  information,  he  could  not  have 
counted  the  Book  of  Chronicles,  whose  early  canonicity 
is  attested  by  the  Mishna  (Yoma,  1,  6),  among  the 
biblical  books  that  were  disputed  (p.  xix),  while  he 
could  not  possibly  have  failed  to  mention  the  Book  of 
Esther,  and,  above  all,  the  Book  of  Ezekiel.1  But 
then  he  would  also  have  undoubtedly  seen — although 
in  this  respect  he  is  sustained  by  some  other  Christian 
scholars — that  these  "disputes"  had  nothing  to  do 
with  the  canonicity  of  the  books  in  question  and  prove 
in  no  way  that  "  the  Writings  were  of  indefinite  extent 
until    their   limits   were    defined    by    the    Synod    of 


1  See  Buhl,  Canon  and  Text  of  the  Old  Testament,  Edinburgh 
1892,  pp.  30,  31,  especially  p.  31,  at  the  bottom. 


122  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

Jamnia"  (end  of  first  century  C.  E.)- —  an  assertion 
which  flatly  contradicts  the  express  statement  of 
Josephus  {contra  Apionem  1,  8).  Then  probably  he 
would  also  have  avoided  speaking  with  such  unshak- 
able confidence  of  the  "official  Hebrew  text  of  the 
school  of  Jamnia"  (p.  xxix,  xxxiii;  xxv),  which  at 
most  is  a  matter  of  disputable  conjecture.  Amusing 
and  interesting  even  for  the  general  Jewish  reader  is 
another  statement  by  our  author  that  the  five  Scrolls 
were  assigned  for  reading  at  "the  five  great  feasts  of 
Judaism"  (p.  Ixxxviii). 

Under  the  conditions  prevailing  in  Christian  theo- 
logical literature,  I  should  not  wonder  were  Professor 
Briggs  to  be  proclaimed  one  day  an  authority  on 
rabbinical  matters  by  those  to  whom  even  the  titles 
and  names  are  not  accessible.  But  I  frankly  confess 
that  the  ignorance  displayed  by  our  author  in  things 
relating  to  Judaism  is  more  painful  to  the  reviewer  than 
it  probably  is  to  the  author.  For  when  I  look  back 
on  the  history  of  biblical  exegesis  and  call  to  my  mind 
under  what  difficulties  the  Holy  Jerome  sought  and 
obtained  the  instruction  of  a  Jewish  teacher,  with 
what  eagerness  and  gratitude  in  the  dark  Middle  Ages 
Christian  scholars  learned  from  Jews  and  Jewish 
books,  I  feel  ashamed  for  the  little  spiritual  influence 
we  are  able  to  exercise  to-day.  For  it  is  a  terrible 
indictment  of  modern  Jewry  and  its  lack  of  moral 
prestige  that  in  a  city  which  contains  the  largest 
Jewish  settlement  in  the  world,  which  counts  thousands 
of  Jews  who  can  justly  claim  the  title  of  scholars,  a 
writer  of  note  can  undertake  to  exhibit  such  ques- 
tionable scholarship  on   matters  relating  to  Judaism 


NEW  SPECIMEN  OF  BIBLICAL  EXEGESIS         123 

and  not  consider  it  necessary  to  seek  Jewish  advice 
when  so  easily  obtainable. 

However,  our  criticism  of  Professor  Briggs'  work 
has  so  far  touched  upon  points  which  lie  on  the  cir- 
cumference of  an  exegetical  work,  and  I  would  not 
have  given  them  such  prominence,  were  it  not  for  the 
expectations  to  the  contrary,  which  the  author  him- 
self helps  to  arouse  in  the  mind  of  the  reader.  The 
centre  of  a  biblical  commentary  naturally  lies  in  the 
interpretation  of  the  text  and  contents  of  the  biblical 
books,  and  the  way  this  task  is  carried  out  must  finally 
and  conclusively  determine  our  judgment.  It  is 
therefore  this  fundamental  point  which  must  now 
claim  our  attention. 

The  interpretation  of  a  biblical  book,  like  that  of 
any  other  ancient  text,  has  a  twofold  object:  it  con- 
sists, as  our  forefathers  called  it,  of  perush  ha-milloth , 
the  interpretation  of  the  text,  and  of  perush  ha-1  iny an, 
the  interpretation  of  the  contents,  or,  as  modern  bibli- 
cal scholars  similarly  but  more  pretentiously  style  it, 
of  Lower  Criticism,  dealing  with  the  text  in  the  original 
as  well  as  in  the  versions,  and  of  Higher  Criticism, 
comprising  the  questions  of  authorship,  sources, 
historical  background,  and  so  forth.  Higher  Criti- 
cism is  deemed,  as  its  name  indicates,  of  higher  value 
in  our  efforts  to  fathom  the  last  meaning  and  purport 
of  the  biblical  books.  But  no  sane-minded  scholar 
will  deny  that  its  basis  must  always  be  I.  ower  Criticism, 
and  only  when  this  basis  is  sound  can  the  deductions 
of  Higher  Criticism  claim  any  degree  of  scientific 
solidity.  The  editors  of  the  International  Critical 
Commentary  evidently  were  of  the  same  opinion,  for 


124  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

in  their  preface  they  pledge  themselves  that  each 
volume  of  the  series  "will  be  based  upon  a  thorough 
critical  study  of  the  original  texts  of  the  Bible." 

Lower  Criticism,  again,  which  is  primarily  con- 
cerned with  the  Hebrew  text  obviously  demands  as  a 
conditio  sine  qua  non  an  intimate  familiarity  with  the 
Hebrew  language,  its  grammar,  vocabulary  and 
phraseology,  supplemented,  in  modern  times,  by  a 
thorough  acquaintance  with  the  results  of  Hebrew 
philology  which  has  made  such  wonderful  strides  in  the 
last  century  and,  at  least,  a  fair  knowledge  of  the 
cognate  Semitic  languages  which  are  so  eminently  help- 
ful in  the  elucidation  of  the  frequently  obscure  Hebrew 
vocabulary.  It  is  in  the  light  of  these  absolutely  in- 
dispensable requirements  of  modern  biblical  exegesis 
that  we  have  to  judge  Professor  Briggs'  commentary. 
But  the  result  of  our  examination  is  of  so  negative  a 
nature  that  we  feel  reluctant  to  give  it  adequate  ex- 
pression. Professor  Briggs,  formerly  Professor  of 
Hebrew  and  Cognate  Languages,  disregards  the  latter 
almost  completely.  I  scarcely  find  any  reference 
to  Arabic  or  Assyrian,  two  languages  which  are  so 
fundamentally  important  for  the  study  of  Hebrew, 
and  only  an  occasional  reference  to  Syriac.  Hebrew 
philology  is  badly  neglected. 

In  the  list  of  authors  and  writings  which  contains 
Lagarde's  work  on  Hebrew  Nouns  we  miss  a  reference  to 
the  famous  book  of  Professor  Barth  on  the  same  subject. 
Were  our  author  acquainted  with  the  results  of  Hebrew 
philology,  he  could  not  possibly  maintain  that  the  word 
negina,  which  by  its  very  form  is  necessarily  an  abstract, 
can  ever  designate  an  instrument  (p.  lxxvii),  or  that  the 
form  mosher  (ii,  p.  106), could  under  any  circumstances  be 


NEW  SPECIMEN  OF  BIBLICAL  EXEGESIS         125 


derived  from  a  verb  which  is  primae  yod  in  all  Semitic 
languages.  He  would  also  have  known  that  ya'tem  (Ps.  Iv, 
5)  is  not  a  Hiphil,  but  a  Kal  with  an  "i"  imperfect,  a  fact 
which  he  might  have  learnt  from  Barth's  article  in  the 
Zeitschrift  der  Deutschen  Morgenlaendischen  Gesellschaft  (year 
1889),  or  even  from  the  more  easily  accessible  grammar  ot 
Gesenius  (§  63n). 

But  why  demand  the  knowledge  of  scientific  philology, 
when  the  simplest  facts  of  Hebrew  grammar  and  vocabulary 
are  trodden  under  foot?  Alehu  (Ps.  i,  3)  is,  according  to  the 
author,  an  "archaic  poetic  suffix"  (i,  p.  9),  as  if  in  words 
ending  in  a  he  another  suffix  were  possible.  The  author 
emendates  kanfay  (Ps.  cxxxix,  9),  which  is  an  insult  to  the 
Hebrew  declension  of  nouns,  while  he  might  have  learnt 
the  correct  form  (kenafay)  from  Ehrlich's  commentary. 
He  connects,  in  a  proposed  emendation,  a  feminine  noun 
with  the  masculine  form  of  the  verb  (See  i,  p.  283  to  Ps. 
xxxii,  4,  or  ii  p.  84  to  Ps.  lxv,  2).  He  does  not  know  that  an 
intransitive  verb  cannot  form  a  passive  participle  (ii, 
p.  112).  He  is  not  aware  of  the  impossibility  of  deriving 
a  form  maheleth  from  the  verb  hallal  and  assigning  to  it  the 
meaning  "wounding,  trouble"  (p.  lxxvi).  He  does  not  see 
the  absurdity  of  proposing  the  reading  polet  ("fugitive"),  a 
participle  of  the  Kal  which  occurs  only  once  in  the  whole 
Bible,  while  all  the  references  quoted  by  the  author  himself 
point  to  the  Piel,  or  of  taking  as  an  equivalent  for  "span 
the  bow!"  the  Hebrew  wehadrech  (i,  p.  391),  while  the  verb 
is  most  commonly  used  in  the  Kal.  He  emendates  the 
senseless  netzartani  for  textual  tzartani  (Ps.  cxxxix,  5), 
which  gives  an  excellent  meaning  ("to  form"),  and  which 
he  might  have  found  in  Gesenius'  dictionary.  He  suggests 
the  reading  yashbithu  (if  I  correctly  point  the  unpointed 
word),  while,  even  if  this  reading  were  correct,  it  could 
only  be  hishbithu  (ii,  p.  159). — I  have  quoted  at  random 
and  could  easily  continue  ad  libitum. 

One  would  expect   that  a   man   with   such    shaky- 
knowledge  of  Hebrew  would  not  have  the  courage  to 


126  PAST  AND  PRESENT 


make  alterations  in  the  text,  a  task  which  naturally 
demands  a  considerably  closer  intimacy  with  the 
language  than  mere  interpretation.  But  the  very 
reverse  is  the  fact.  The  author's  attitude  toward  the 
established  text  is  foreshadowed  in  the  introduction 
in  which  an  enthusiastic  tribute  is  paid  to  Professor 
Cheyne,  of  Oxford,  "for  his  brave  investigation  of  the 
most  difficult  problems"  (p.  cix),  a  man  whose  critical 
methods  and  especially  whose  textual  emendations 
have  long  become  a  by -word  among  all  sober-minded 
critics.1  Needless  to  say  our  author  is  every  bit  as 
"brave"  as  his  master.  Free  from  the  shackles  of 
grammatical  rule  and  stylistic  usage,  our  commenta- 
tor gives  full  vent  to  his  daring  spirit.  He  emendates 
to  the  right  and  the  left,  and  not  a  single  Psalm  escapes 
his  fury  of  destruction.  How  far  his  emendations 
comply  with  the  most  elementary  rules  of  the  Hebrew 
language  has  already  been  illustrated  by  some  of  the 
examples  quoted  above.  The  author  himself  is  ap- 
parently aware  that  he  treads  on  slippery  ground. 
For  in  many  a  passage  where  he  diffusely  and  elabor- 
ately comments  on  his  emendation  he  makes  desper- 
ate efforts  to  avoid  the  exact  wording  of  the  proposed 
reading.2  Is  it  necessary  to  state  that  Professor 
Briggs'  emendations  which  encircle  the  whole  Psalter, 
proposed,  as  they  are,  with  a  complete  disregard  of 


1  I  attempted  to  characterize  Cheyne's  methods  of  textual 
criticism  in  my  review  of  his  Isaiah  edition  in  Haupt's  Poly- 
chrome Bible  (Zeitschrift  fuer  Hebraeische  Bibliographie,  1900, 
pp.  105-108.). 

2  Compare  i,  p.  283  on  Ps.  xxxii,  4;  ii,  p.  110  and  111  on 
Ps.  lxviii.  23,  24,  30,  and  other  examples. 


NEW  SPECIMEN  OF  BIBLICAL  EXEGESIS         127 

the  simplest  requirements  of  philology,  and  without 
the  faintest  attempt  at  discrimination,  are  one  gigantic 
failure?  That  far  from  "mending"  the  biblical  text 
they  only  render  it  more  difficult  and  obscure?  We 
positively  stand  aghast  when  we  read  such  reckless, 
meaningless  and  outrageously  un-Hebrew  emenda- 
tions as  proposed  on  i,  p.  393,  or  n  p.  109  (on  Ps. 
lxviii,  18,)  or  p.  230,  given  in  the  name  of  modern 
bibilical  criticism,  and  we  utterly  fail  to  comprehend 
how  the  author's  co-editor  of  the  Old  Testament  books, 
Professor  Driver,  of  Oxford,  whose  knowledge,  preci- 
sion and  sound  judgment  are  highly  esteemed  by 
every  biblical  student,  could  have  lent  the  prestige  of 
his  name  to  such  unheard-of  eccentricities.  We  are 
far  from  objecting  to  textual  criticism.  No  un- 
biased student  of  Scripture  can  deny  the  enormous 
gain  which  the  biblical  text  can  derive  from  emenda- 
tions, and  he  will  heartily  welcome  a  work  like  the  new 
critical  edition  of  the  Hebrew  Bible  by  Kittel. 
But  when  one  sees  the  terrible  abuse  of  textual  emen- 
dations on  the  part  of  "critics"  like  Briggs,  how  the 
liberty  toward  the  biblical  text  degenerates  into  license, 
unrestrained  by  considerations  of  philology,  criticism 
or  even  common  sense,  one  feels  inclined  to  welcome 
a  new  Massora  which  would  put  a  ban  upon  such 
hazardous  attempts  and  would  safeguard  the  text 
against  critics  who  consider  the  Bible  a  "Book  of 
God"  and  yet  deal  with  it  in  a  fashion  as  they  never 
would  dare  with  a  book  of  man. 

Having  examined  Professor  Briggs'  standards  of 
Lower  Criticism  we  feel  little  inclined  and  scarcely  con- 
sider it  necessary  to  scrutinize  more  deeply  the  Higher 


128  FAST  AND  PRESENT 

Criticism  of  our  commentator.  We  can  easily  imagine 
the  solidity  of  its  deductions  when  built  on  so  shaky  a 
foundation.  For  what  value  can  we  assign  to  con- 
clusions based  upon  defective  philogical  data  or  ex- 
tremely questionable  textual  emendations?  The  au- 
thor, for  instance,  frequently  determines  the  date  of 
a  Psalm  by  means  of  its  style.  It  is,  however,  a  fact 
known  to  every  student  of  Hebrew  philology  that  the 
differentiation  of  the  Hebrew  language  according  to 
periods  is  a  most  complicated  and  difficult  task  which 
will  remain  a  desideratum  for  a  long  time  to  come. 
What  consideration  then  can  Professor  Briggs'  hasty 
conclusions  claim  in  this  direction? 

We  scarcely  believe  our  eyes  when  we  read  vol.  i,  p.  4 
(in  his  comment  on  Psalm  i)  the  dry  categorical  statement: 
"The  language  of  the  Psalm  is  that  of  the  Greek  period: 
'atzath  resha'im  v.  1  b,  moshab  letzim  v.  1  d,  palge  mayim 
v.  3  a.  The  syntax  is  also  late:  wehaya  v.  3  a,  yode'av.6." 
For  had  Professor  Briggs  consulted  Gesenius'  dictionary, 
which  he  recently  helped  to  publish  in  an  English  edition, 
he  would  undoubtedly  have  seen  that  the  first  expression 
occurs  also  in  Job  x,  3,  xxi,  16;  palge  mayim  in  Proverbs  v, 
16,  xxi,  1,  Lamentations  iii,  48.  As  to  the  syntax,  I  am 
most  curious  to  know  how  the  verbs  in  question  could  by 
any  chance  have  been  used  differently  in  biblical  Hebrew. 
We  are  amazed— or  perhaps  amused — at  the  omniscience 
of  our  author,  when  we  read  (ii,  p.  152)  his  evidence  for  the 
late  style  of  Psalm  lxxiv,  verses  3,  6,  14,  which  he  regards 
as  glosses,  knowing,  as  we  do,  and  as  the  author  should  have 
known,  that  liwyathan  is  to  be  found  in  Isaiah  xxvii,  1  as 
well  as  in  Job  iii,  8  and  xl,  25,  that  the  phrase  harimpa  am 
mashu'oth  is  an  invention  of  Professor  Briggs,  and  that  the 
words  kashil  and  kelappoth,  whose  ancient  pedigree  is  evident 
to  everyone  acquainted  with  the  formation  of  Hebrew 
nouns,  are  found  only  in  this  passage  in  the  entire  Bible. 


NEW  SPECIMEN  OF  BIBLICAL  EXEGESIS       129 

We  heartily  concur  with  the  author  in  his  plea  that 
"very  great  importance  must  be  attached  to  the  study 
of  words  and  phrases"  (p.  lix).  But  seeing  the  man- 
ner in  which  our  author  has  pursued  this  very  import- 
ant study,  we  can  only  feel  sorry  for  the  "immense 
labor"  our  author  has  bestowed  on  a  "lexicon  of  the 
Psalter,  giving  every  word  and  every  use  of  every 
word,"  "based  on  a  revised  Hebrew  text"  (p.  vii),  and 
we  cannot  suppress  a  feeling  of  apprehension  at  the 
announcement  of  its  speedy  publication. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  this  absence  of  a  sound 
philological  basis  affects  not  only  the  particular 
question  of  the  dates  of  the  Psalms,  but  manifests  it- 
self with  equally  disastrous  results  in  every  depart- 
ment of  Professor  Briggs'  exegesis.  My  observations 
do  not  extend  over  the  whole  work  but  confine  them- 
selves to  large  portions  derived  from  various  sections. 
Yet,  I  would  vastly  exceed  the  limits  of  an  article, 
were  I  to  recount  all  the  passages  which  excite  our 
opposition,  bewilderment  and  even  indignation.  But 
I  cannot  avoid  indicating  in  general  terms  one 
fundamental  defect  of  this  commentary  which  must 
already  have  become  patent  from  the  above  illustra- 
tions and  which,  apart  from  an  inadequate  philological 
equipment,  constitutes  the  main  source  of  the  author's 
shortcomings, — I  mean  the  fact  that  Professor  Briggs 
who,  as  editor  and  author,  lays  such  emphatic  stress 
on  the  critical  nature  of  his  commentary  shows  such 
an  appalling  lack — of  criticism.  For  criticism,  in 
its  original  etymological  meaning,  is  "discrimination," 
is  the  ability  to  distinguish  the  various  degrees  of 
truth,  to  discern  the  correct  from  the  incorrect,  the 


130  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

certain  from  the  uncertain,  the  probable  from  the 
improbable,  and  the  possible  from  the  impossible — an 
ability  which  is  absolutely  indispensable  in  a  province 
where  the  evidence  is  seldom  conclusive,  but  mostly 
approximate.  Our  charge  against  the  author  can 
scarcely  be  better  illustrated  and  substantiated  than 
by  the  curious  and  striking  fact  that  in  a  critical  com- 
mentary on  the  Psalter,  which  perhaps  more  than 
any  biblical  book  has  been  the  object  of  exegetical 
endeavors  and  conjectures,  no  word  is  more  lavishly 
used  than  the  adjective  and  adverb  "doubtless."  It 
is  scarcely  credible  what  dubities  and  even  absurdities 
are  honored  with  this  most  sacred  and  most  exclusive 
epithet  of  true  science  and  criticism.  The  author 
completely  ignores  the  boundaries  between  the  pos- 
sible, probable  and  necessary,  and  often  gives  the 
impression  as  if  his  thinking  were  governed  by  different 
logical  categories.  His  statements  are,  as  a  rule, 
most  confident  and  definite,  but  his  evidence  is  so 
vague,  his  argumentation  so  blurred  that  the  reverse 
is  just  as  capable  of  demonstration.  Professor 
Briggs,  for  instance,  feels  so  confident  and  "doubt- 
less" as  to  the  dates  of  the  Psalms — a  most  hotly 
disputed  position  of  Higher  Criticism — that  in  his 
introduction  he  gives  an  itemized  account,  accom- 
panied by  an  elaborate  statistical  table,  of  all  the 
Psalms  and  of  the  periods  over  which  they  are  dis- 
tributed. But  when  you  examine  his  evidence  for 
so  imposing  a  structure,  you  cannot  but  marvel  at 
the  self-confidence  of  the  author,  and  occasionally 
cannot  help  smiling  when  you  realize,  e.  g.,  that 
Psalm  lviii,  which,  according  to  our  critic,  is  "doubt- 


NEW  SPECIMEN  OF  BIBLICAL  EXEGESIS         131 

less"  one  of  the  oldest,  is  considered  by  authoritative 
scholars  (Baethgen,  Olshausen,  and  others)  of  a  parti- 
cularly late  origin. 

The  author  is  even  more  confident  and  assertive 
"in  the  detection  and  elimination  of  the  glosses  in  the 
search  for  the  original  texts  as  they  came  from  the 
authors"  (p.  vii).  There  are  many  critics  who,  like 
Kittel,  altogether  deny  the  possibility  of  tracing  "the 
original  texts  as  they  came  from  the  authors,"  but  no 
one  will  dispute  that  it  is  a  most  difficult  and  delicate 
task  which  demands  utmost  precaution  and  dis- 
crimination. Professor  Briggs,  however,  who  has  such 
great  admiration  for  the  "brave  investigation  of  the 
most  difficult  problems,"  courageously  ignores  all 
difficulties.  He  is  in  all  earnestness  convinced  that 
he  is  able  to  detect  the  traces  of  every  hand  through 
which  the  Psalter  has  gone  and  even  to  fix  the  date  of 
the  glosses,  consisting,  as  a  rule,  of  a  few  words,  and 
sometimes  (e.  g.,  ii,  p.  154,  on  Ps.  lxxiv,  11)  even 
of  a  single  word.  He  distinguishes  with  categorical 
"doubtlessness"  between  explanatory  glosses,  glosses 
of  identification,  amplification  and  expansion,  and 
makes  such  liberal  use  of  his  system  that  the  whole 
appearance  of  the  Psalter  is  radically  changed.  But 
when  you  approach  this  edifice  with  a  little  logic,  it 
flies  asunder  like  a  house  of  cards  and  leaves  nothing 
but    the    subjective    opinion    of    the    author.1     The 


1  The  author,  e.  g.,  considers  Ps.  Ixxiv,  v.  14,  a  late  gloss 
(ii,  p.  155).  But  the  ancient  Tiyamat  myth  reflected  in  this 
verse,  of  which  Professor  Briggs  has  apparently  never  heard 
(in  spite  of  Gunkel's  numerous  publications!),  obviously  speaks 
for  its  authenticity.     Ps.   lxviii,   v.   31    fas,   in   fact,   the  whole 


132  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

evidence  is  so  slender  that  by  the  very  same  method 
it  is  quite  possible  to  explain  away  any  verse  in  the 
Bible  and  transform  the  whole  Scripture  into  a 
conglomeration  of  heterogeneous  glosses. 

The  author  is  no  less  emphatic  and  categorical  in 
his  endeavor  to  reconstruct  the  original  metrical 
form  of  the  Psalms.  But  even  admitting  the  existence 
of  a  biblical  metre,  one  cannot  help  wondering  at  the 
certitude  of  our  author  in  dealing  with  a  problem 
which  is  only  in  its  infancy,  and  in  building  a  large 
metrical  system  on  the  doubtful  basis  of  eliminated 
glosses  or  textual  emendations.  There  is  not  a  single 
Psalm  which  can  be  made  to  fit  into  the  author's 
metrical  scheme  without  violent  alterations  and 
eliminations.  But  the  lack  of  evidence  in  no  way 
inconveniences  our  author.  He  is  even  so  "brave" 
as  to  amplify  his  metrical  hypothesis  by  the  postula- 
tion  of  a  sort  of  rhyme,  or  "assonance,"  in  the  Psalter. 
His  illustrations,  however,  are  most  amusing.  He 
emphasizes,  for  instance,  in  Psalm  vi  (i,  p.  46,  com- 
pare also  p.  257,  263,  ii,  p.  72,  373,  etc.)  the  pronouns 
"me,"  "my,"  and  "thee,"  "thy,"  by  italics  to  indicate 
that  they  constitute  a  rhyme.  But  when  we  glance 
at  the  contents,  we  are  puzzled  to  know  how  the 
Psalmist  who  speaks  of  God  and  himself  could  possi- 
bly have  expressed  himself  otherwise.     He  forces  a 


Psalm)  has  always  been  the  object  of  exegetic  ingenuity.  But 
our  author  has  actually  the  courage  to  set  aside  all  difficulties  by 
decreeing  (ii,  p.  1C4):  "Glossators,  misunderstanding  this  difficult 
clause,  after  the  omission  of  an  important  word,  left  it  in  such  a 
state  that  it  has  always  been  a  crux  of  interpreters  and  versions." 
Further  illustrations  are  unnecessary. 


NEW  SPECIMEN  OF  BIBLICAL  EXEGESIS         133 

rhyme  into  Psalm  ex  by  ruthlessly  mutilating  the 
text  (see  ii  p.  381).  He  finds  a  continuous  assonance 
of  the  plural  endings  im  and  oth  in  the  Psalm  frag- 
ment, cxliv,  12-15,  but  his  way  of  demonstrating 
it  is  probably  without  a  parallel  in  the  whole  depart- 
ment of  biblical  exegesis: 

Banenu  is  changed  into  banim.  Kineti'im  is  emendated, 
after  the  example  of  Ehrlich,  into  KineU'e,  yet  in  the  pre- 
ceding line  the  reading  of  the  Massora  is  used  as  a  proof 
for  the  "assonance."  Bin  urehem  is  "doubtless"  biriurim. 
Benothenu  is  changed  into  banoth.  Tabnith  hechal  becomes 
tabniyoth:  "although  the  plural  does  not  occur  elsewhere, 
there  is  no  reason  why  it  should  not  have  been  used  here 
in  assonance.  Then  (!)  'hechal'  is  an  explanatory  addition." 
Mezawenu  is  changed  into  mezawim  (a  form  which  never 
occurs  in  Hebrew  and  which  the  author  wisely  enough 
leaves  unvocalized) .  Mizan  el  zan  is  read  zenim:  "so 
probably  here, as  measure  and  assonance  inimrequire," — the 
author,  however,  leaves  us  in  doubt  as  to  whether  his  emenda- 
tion refers  to  the  three  words  or  only  to  the  last  one.  Tzonenu : 
"Assonance  requires  tzonoth,  which  is  unknown  elsewhere; 
but  as  referring  here  to  the  females,  the  ewes,  there  is  no 
sufficient  reason  against  it"  (!)  Allufenu  is  changed  into 
allufim.  Peretz:  "Assonance  requires  plural  peratzim." 
Yotzeth:  "Assonance  requires  plural  oth."  Tzewacha: 
"Assonance  requires  plural."  Birhowothenu:  "read  birho- 
woth." — Verily,  it  seems  unpardonable  to  waste  the  reader's 
time  with  such  monstrous  caricatures  of  biblical  exegesis. 

It  must  have  occurred  to  many  a  reader  that  we  have 
accorded  too  much  thought  and  space  to  a  work  which 
so  flagrantly  violates  the  elementary  requirements  of 
scholarship.  But  the  unsophisticated  reader  who 
argues  in  this  manner  is  unable  to  realize  how  easily 
the  theological  guild  sets  up  and  almost  canonizes  its 
authorities,  and  he  is  consequently  inclined  to  under- 


134  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

value  the  import  and  influence  of  this  kind  of  books. 
We  have  earnestly  endeavored  to  point  out  —sharply 
but  justly — the  principal  defects  of  Professor  Briggs' 
Commentary,  and  we  can  faithfully  assure  the  reader 
that,  were  we  engaged  in  fault-finding,  we  might 
easily  have  swelled  our  bill  of  indictment  with  an 
additional  number  of  charges,  such  as  the  complete 
neglect  of  the  aesthetic  side  of  the  Psalms,  the  ar- 
bitrariness with  which  the  faintest  similarities  between 
biblical  passages  are  made  to  bear  upon  date  and 
authorship,  the  diffuseness  of  style,  the  unnecessary 
and  therefore  confusing  multitude  of  quotations,  and 
many  others.  Yet,  all  these  glaring  imperfections 
have  not  been  able  to  daunt  the  enthusiasm  of  Prof. 
Briggs'  theological  admirers,  and  they  have  already — 
as  can  be  seen  from  the  criticisms  appended  by  the 
publishers  at  the  end  of  the  second  volume — pro- 
claimed his  commentary  to  be  "a  marvel  of  minute 
scholarship,"  to  possess  "extreme  thoroughness, 
scholarly  precision  and  depth  of  insight,"  or  "a  wealth 
of  information  which  is  positively  astounding,"  and 
similar  eulogistic  utterances.  It  is  more  than  certain 
that  the  theological  rank  and  file  will  cheerfully  sub- 
mit to  the  verdict  of  its  leaders,  and  a  new  authority 
is  thus  created  which  will  lie  like  a  stumbling  block 
in  the  path  of  every  future  Psalm  commentator. 

But  Professor  Briggs'  work  presents  still  another, 
far  more  important  aspect  which  justifies  and  even 
necessitates  our  gravest  apprehensions.  Professor 
Briggs'  commentary  is  not  the  stray  effort  of  an 
individual  writer,  but  the  upshot  of  a  system  for  which 
biblical  exegesis  in   its  recent  development  is  to  be 


NEW  SPECIMEN  OF  BIBLICAL  EXEGESIS       135 

held  directly  responsible.  This  system  which  breeds 
books  like  this  is  based,  in  our  opinion,  on  a  complete 
misapprehension  of  the  task  and  nature  of  biblical 
exegesis.  It  commits  the  fundamental  error  in  that 
it  considers  biblical  exegesis,  we  may  even  go  further 
and  say,  biblical  science,  a  — science,  a  Wissenschaft, 
identical  in  scope  and  method  with  any  other  branch 
of  learning.  It  overlooks  the  fact  that  every  de- 
partment of  learning  is  built  on  a  series  of  well- 
established  data,  or,  in  the  case  of  philological  learn- 
ing, on  reliable  sources  which,  mostly  through  new 
finds,  are  constantly  on  the  increase.  Every  other 
branch  of  learning  consequently  offers  a  large  field  of 
activity  to  scholars  whose  main  force  is  industry,  and 
we  find,  if  we  may  examplify  our  assertion  by  the 
cognate  province  of  modern  Arabic  scholarship,  that 
men  like  Fluegel  or  Wuestenfeld  who  did  not  possess  a 
spark  of  genius  have  earned  the  sincere  gratitude  and 
admiration  of  all  Arabists.  In  biblical  science, 
however,  the  "sources"  are  exceedingly  limited,  and 
the  influx  of  new  material,  as  far  as  it  has  an  immediate 
bearing  on  the  biblical  text,  is  extraordinarily  scarce 
and  irregular.  Moreover,  the  available  material 
itself — the  biblical  books — is  often  obscure  or  am- 
biguous, and  now  that  Lower  Criticism  has  shaken  the 
foundations  of  the  text  of  the  Bible,  and  Higher 
Criticism  has  transformed  its  contents  into  a  mass  of 
conjectures,  the  whole  province  hangs  in  the  air,  with 
no  point  of  Archimedes  to  start  from.  In  a  sphere 
like  this,  where  nothing  is  forbidden  and  everything 
permitted,  where  the  material  is  scant  and  nothing  is 
unshakably  certain,  there  is  only  room  for  scholars 


136  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

with  intuition,  for  those  who,  leaping  over  the  gap  of 
evidence,  victoriously  penetrate  to  the  truth.  The 
representatives  of  biblical  research,  however,  who, 
as  is  but  natural,  are  not  all  blessed  with  this  rarest  of 
gifts,  ignore  this  special  condition  of  their  "science" 
and  make  others  and  themselves  believe  that,  as  in 
every  other  branch  of  learning,  so  here,  too,  mere 
industry  can  take  the  place  of  ability  and  produce 
lasting  results.  Thus  it  comes  about  that  biblical 
science  is  cultivated  and  promoted  by  exceedingly  few 
men  of  genius,  while  the  work  of  the  dii  minor um 
gentium,  despite  enormous  endeavors  and  a  gigantic 
scientific  apparatus,  shares  the  fate  of  Penelope's 
web,  and  only  results  in  estranging  those  who  think 
that  science  is  more  than  whimsical  irresponsible 
guess-work. 

Professor  Briggs  suffers  from  exactly  the  same  mis- 
apprehension. His  commentary  begins  with  the 
statement  that  it  is  "the  fruit  of  forty  years  of  labor." 
He  strongly  emphasizes  this  feature  of  his  work.  He 
is  so  firmly  convinced  of  the  value  of  labor  that  he 
categorically  declares:  "If  I  could  spend  more  years 
in  preparation,  doubtless  I  would  do  much  better  work" 
(Preface).  Our  heart  contracts  when  we  have  to 
pronounce  so  harsh  a  verdict  on  a  book  which  is  the 
result  of  a  man's  life-work,  and  the  fruit  of  such  truly 
admirable — I  say  it  without  a  tinge  of  irony — love 
of  research  and  self-sacrifice.  But  the  fact  remains 
that  Love's  labor  is  lost.  For  what  biblical  research 
indispensably  demands  is  not  labor  but  intuition,  that 
rare  faculty  which  is  given  but  to  few.  Industry 
without  limit  and  years  without  number  cannot  re- 


NEW  SPECIMEN  OF  BIBLICAL  EXEGESIS         137 

place  that  magic  gift  which  finds  without  seeking. 
Let  every  commentator  or  investigator  of  the  Bible, 
who  sets  out  to  discover  unknown  truths,  remember 
the  warning  of  Elihu  (Job  xxxii,  7-8):  "I  said,  days 
should  speak  and  multitude  of  years  should  teach 
wisdom.  But  there  is  a  spirit  in  man,  and  the  in- 
spiration of  the  Almighty  giveth  them  understanding." 


IX 
THE   MESSIANIC   IDEA   IN   ISLAM* 

KNOW  ye  that  every  nation  which  has  entered  upon  a 
period  of  decline  is  wont  to  comfort  itselt  with  the  hope 
of  returning  to  its  pristine  glory  and  to  delude  itself  with 
the  prospect  of  regaining  its  former  state  of  prosperity.  Thus 
we  find  that  the  children  of  Israel  were  cheated  by  the 
promises  which  were  held  out  to  them  by  their  forebears. 
In  a  similar  manner  the  Persians  are  made  to  look  out  in 
vain  for  their  deliverer  Bahram  Hamavand;  the Shiites1  wait 
for  their  Mahdi,2  and  the  Christians  expect  their  Savior 
who  is  to  come  fo  them  from  the  clouds,  and  the  same  is 
true  of  all  other  nations.     As  the  poet  puts  it: 

Unhappy  people  are  fooled  by  expectations, 
To  non-fulfillment  doomed, 
Born  of  anger  at  Destiny's  hard  rulings, 
Wherein  their  rage  is   helplessly   consumed. 

These    pithy    sentences   of    the   no   less   profound 
than     brilliant    Muhammendan    theologian    All    Ibn 


*The  following  essay  represents  the  inaugural  address  de- 
livered by  the  writer  on  November  15,  1902,  at  the  University 
of  Strassburg  (Alsace)  on  his  appointment  as  lecturer.  It  was 
first  published  in  German  in  Festschrift  zum  70.  Geburtstage  A. 
Berliner's,  Berlin,  1903. 

1  The  Muhammedans  are  divided  into  two  principal  sects: 
the  Sunnites,  who  represent  the  orthodox  majority,  and  the 
Shiites,  who  constitute  the  heterodox  minority;  the  latter  and 
are  to  be  found  principally  in  Persia. 

2  The  title  ot  their  Messiah.     See  later  p.  154. 


140  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

Hazm1  point  to  the  psychological  fountainhead 
whence  the  Messianic  idea  derives  its  origin.  It  is 
the  "anger  at  Destiny's  hard  rulings"  out  of  which 
the  Messianic  expectation  springs  even  as  the  fruit 
grows  out  of  the  seed.  The  sad  present  makes  it 
necessary  for  man  to  seek  comfort  and  compensation 
in  the  idealized  picture  of  a  happy  future,  and  the 
gloomier  the  background  of  reality,  the  brighter  are 
the  colors  with  which  the  future  stands  out  against 
it.  No  wonder  therefore  that  the  idea  of  a  Messiah 
is  found,  from  the  days  of  antiquity  until  our  own 
times,  among  many  nations  which  have  no  historic 
connection  with  one  another.  The  Messianic  hope 
may  be  traced  among  the  Hindus  and  Persians;  it  is 
found  to  a  certain  extent  among  the  Greeks,  and  it 
plays,  as  we  all  know,  an  overwhelming  role  in  the 
history  of  the  Jews. 

Here,  too,  in  the  case  of  the  "People  of  God,"  the 
Messianic  idea  has  orginally  an  unmistakably  earthly 
aspect,  representing  the  hope  for  a  happier  political 
and  social  future.  In  contrast  to  the  cheerless  present 
in  which  the  unworthy  descendants  of  the  divinely 
appointed  King  David  wield  a  godless  and  unright- 
eous rule  and  fill  the  land  with  unhappiness  and  un- 
rest, Israel  looks  forward  to  the  time  when  a  worthy 
scion  of  the  Davidic  dynasty,  putting  on  righteous- 


1  He  lived  in  the  eleventh  century  and  was  a  friend  of  the 
famous  Jewish  poet  and  statesman  Samuel  Hanagid.  See  on 
Ibn  Hazm  the  introduction  to  my  book  "The  Heterodoxies 
of  the  Shiites  according  to  Ibn  Hazm"  (Reprint  from  the  Journal 
of  the  American  Oriental  Society,  vols.  28  and  29),  New  Haven, 
1909. 


THE  MESSIANIC  IDEA  IN  ISLAM  141 

ness  like  a  girdle,  shall  arise  to  usher  in  the  golden  era 
of  peace  and  prosperity.  The  original  Messianic 
ideal  of  the  Hebrews  exhibits  the  traits  of  a  purely- 
natural  aspiration  and  exhales  the  invigorating 
breath  of  their  native  soil.  "Behold,  the  days  come, 
saith  the  Lord,  that... the  mountains  shall  drop 
sweet  wine,  and  all  the  hills  shall  melt.  .  .And  they 
shall  build  the  waste  cities,  and  inhabit  them;  and 
they  shall  plant  vineyards  and  drink  the  wine  thereof. 
They  shall  also  make  gardens  and  eat  the  fruit  of 
them,  and  I  will  plant  them  upon  their  land."1 

Ere  long,  however,  the  Jewish  Messianic  idea  ad- 
vanced beyond  that  primitive  stage.  Very  soon  it 
took  a  turn  which  completely  revolutionized  the 
destinies  of  the  Jewish  people  and  indirectly  also  the 
destinies  of  the  human  race.  This  turn,  which  gave 
the  Messianic  belief  of  the  Jews  a  direction  and 
significance  utterly  at  variance  with  the  Messianic 
aspirations  of  other  human  groups,  emanated,  like 
everything  else  that  is  great  and  original  in  ancient 
Israel,  from  the  Jewish  prophets. 

For  the  Jewish  prophets  looked  at  their  age  from 
a  radically  different  point  of  view  than  did  their  con- 
temporaries. The  prophets,  in  whose  bones  the  word 
of  the  Lord  was  shut  up  like  a  burning  fire,  who, 
towering  sky-high  over  the  surface  of  human  conven- 
tionalities, tried  to  penetrate  to  the  very  heart  of 
things,  could  not  resort  to  the  same  picayune  stand- 
ards as  did  the  common  run  of  humanity.  In  judging 
the  evils  of  their  environment,  they  did  not  measure 

1  Amos  ix,  13-15. 


142  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

them  by  the  petty  yardstick  of  the  "good  old  times," 
but  rather  by  the  lofty  demands  of  the  absolute  ideal. 
No  wonder  then  that,  viewed  in  this  light,  the  present 
seemed  to  them  unspeakably  cheerless  and  vulgar,  and 
that,  correspondingly,  the  future  stood  out  before 
their  mind's  eye  as  immeasurably  happy  and  in- 
spiring. Thus  the  Messianic  idea  of  the  prophets, 
breaking  the  narrow  frame  of  a  purely  political  as- 
piration, assumes  the  vast  dimensions  of  an  all-human 
dream  and,  while  still  interwined  with  the  national 
expectation  of  a  shoot  out  of  the  stock  of  Jesse, 
reaches  its  climax  in  the  overwhelming  description 
of  that  glorious  age  in  which  "they  shall  beat  their 
swords  into  plow-shares,  and  their  spears  into  pruning- 
hooks;  nation  shall  not  lift  up  sword  against  nation, 
neither  shall  they  learn  war  any  more,"  and  in  which 
universal  peace,  setting  aside  the  brutal  laws  of 
nature,  shall  extend  its  blessings  to  the  wild  man-de- 
stroying beasts.  "And  the  wolf  shall  dwell  with  the 
lamb,  and  the  leopard  shall  lie  down  with  the  kid,  and 
the  calf  and  the  young  lion  and  the  fatling  together; 
and  a  little  child  shall  lead  them.  And  the  cow  and 
the  bear  shall  feed;  their  young  ones  shall  lie  down 
together;  and  the  lion  shall  eat  straw  like  the  ox. 
And  the  sucking  child  shall  play  on  the  hole  of  the 
asp,  and  the  weaned  child  shall  put  his  hand  on  the 
basilisk's  den.  They  shall  not  hurt  nor  destroy  in  all 
My  holy  mountain,  for  the  earth  shall  be  full  of  the 
knowledge  of  the  Lord,  as  the  waters  cover  the  sea."1 
This   exalted   picture   of    Messianic    times,  as  con- 

1  Isaiah  xi,  6-9. 


THE  MESSIANIC  IDEA  IN  ISLAM  143 

ceived  by  the  prophets,  became  more  and  more  the 
common  property  of  the  entire  Jewish  race.  In  the 
course  of  the  centuries,  however,  it  was  forced  to 
undergo  far-reaching  modifications.  As  the  position 
of  the  Jewish  people  grew  more  and  more  precarious 
and  hopeless,  the  Messiah  had  to  be  endowed  with 
correspondingly  large  powers  in  order  to  effect  its 
salvation.  It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that,  where- 
as the  Messianic  ideal  of  the  prophets,  with  all  its 
overwhelming  loftiness,  still  fully  retains  its  essenti- 
ally human  aspect,  the  post-biblical  expectation  of 
the  Messiah  clearly  tends  in  the  direction  of  the  super- 
human, the  transcendental.  The  Messiah  is  no  more 
conceived  as  an  earthly  king,  born  within  the  limits 
of  Time,  but  rather  as  a  mysterious  redeemer  who 
lives  forever;  nay,  his  existence  is  believed  to  have 
preceded  the  creation  of  the  world.  His  abode  is  in 
Heaven  where,  hidden  from  the  gaze  of  mankind,  he 
waits  for  the  time  when  Israel  shall  be  worthy  of  his 
manifestation,  and  when  he  shall  descend  from  the 
clouds  in  order  to  destroy  the  powers  of  evil  and  usher 
in  the  golden  age  both  for  the  people  of  the  Lord  and 
the  other  nations  who  acknowledge  the  Lord.  In 
this  modified  form  the  Messainic  idea  became  firmly 
implanted  in  the  national  consciousness  of  post- 
biblical  Judaism,  gradually  assuming  a  central 
position  in  it.  It  radiated  comfort  and  courage  to 
the  Jewish  people,  enabling  it  to  proceed  on  its 
thorny  path,  and  penetrated  with  its  rays  the  pitch- 
dark  gloom  of  the  Jewish  Diaspora. 

It  is  to  be  assumed  a  priori  that  an  idea  occupying 
such  a  dominant  position  in  Judaism  could  not  fail  to 


144  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

influence  those  religious  movements  which  took  their 
source  in  Judaism.  We  are,  indeed,  able  to  trace  this 
influence  with  absolute  certainty.  The  overwhelm- 
ingly important  role  which  the.  Messianic  idea  of 
Judaism  played  in  the  genesis  of  Christianity  is  re- 
vealed to  us  in  clear-cut  outlines  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment. But  in  Christianity  the  Messianic  idea  was 
not  permitted  to  attain  to  any  growth,  for  the  reason 
that  it  found  its  consummation  there.  The  Gospels 
which,  in  spite  of  occasional  protestations  to  the 
contrary,  did  not  address  themselves  to  the  lost  sheep 
of  Israel,  but  to  those  that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden 
among  the  entire  human  race,  had  no  place  for  the 
national  yearnings  after  a  Davidic  scion,  and,  planting 
the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  in  the  hearts  of  men,  it  was 
neither  willing  nor  able  to  find  room  for  the  Kingdom 
of  the  Messiah.  Hence  the  Messianic  idea  in  Chris- 
tianity was  bound,  after  a  short-lived  development, 
to  reach  its  climax  and  thereby  its  end.  The  more 
variegated,  however,  was  the  course  which  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  Messianic  idea  took  in  Islam,  the  second 
daughter-religion  of  Judaism. 

Occasional  references  in  the  Koran  make  it  abso- 
lutely certain  that  already  the  founder  of  Islam  was 
familiar  with  the  Messianic  idea  of  Judaism,  even 
though  the  form  in  which  it  appears  there  is  hazy  and 
blurred.  The  fact  that  the  term  al-masih,  "the 
Messiah,"  is  used  in  the  Koran,  as  the  standing 
designation  for  Jesus,  and  a  number  of  other  indica- 
tions warrant  the  conclusion  that  the  Messianic  idea 
reached  Muhammed  through  the  medium  of  Chris- 
tianity and  was  therefore  stunted  in  its  growth.     The 


THE  MESSIANIC  IDEA  IN  ISLAM  145 

profounder  was  the  influence  of  Judaism  in  this  domain 
in  the  age  following  that  of  Muhammed. 

This  observation  is  fully  in  accord  with  a  phenom- 
enon of  more  far-reaching  import,  the  increase  of 
Jewish  influence  after  Muhammed  in  general.  The 
founder  of  Islam,  first  an  illiterate  camel  herd  and 
later  on  an  exalted  visionary,  was  not  in  a  mental 
condition  to  grasp  objectively  the  Jewish  ideas  pre- 
sented to  him  or  to  convey  them  adequately  to  his 
followers.  Nor  did  the  Jews  of  Arabia,  with  whom 
Muhammed  came  in  contact,  possess  the  necessary 
familiarity  with  the  history  of  their  people  to  act  as 
reliable  transmitters  of  Jewish  lore.  Hence  the 
curious  and  sometimes  ridiculous  confusion  which  sur- 
rounds the  Jewish  traditions  as  presented  in  the 
Koran. 

But  after  the  death  of  the  Prophet  conditions  took 
a  vastly  different  turn  in  both  directions.  On  the 
one  hand,  the  intellectual  resources  of  Islam  were 
immensely  enriched  by  the  conversion  of  many  Jews 
who  were  well  versed  in  the  writings  of  Judaism. 
On  the  other  hand,  Islam  itself  succeeded  in  creating 
a  staff  of  learned  men  whose  task  it  was  to  interpret 
and  amplify  the  stories  and  statements  which  are 
merely  hinted  at  in  the  Koran.  Thus  supply  and 
demand  met  half  way,  resulting  in  an  over-production 
of  Israiliyyat,  i.  e.,  Jewish,  or  Israelitish,  stories  and 
legends, — an  activity  which,  not  always  pursued  with 
a  due  regard  for  truth,  and  occasionally  tainted  by  the 
suspicion  of  deliberate  fraud,  had  a  disastrous  effect 
upon  the  literary  output  of  Islam.  Accordingly,  as 
early  as  in  the  first  century  of  the  Hegira  the  Messianic 


146  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

conceptions  of  Judaism  may  be  seen  circulating 
among  the  Faithful  under  various  disguises.  On 
another  occasion  I  tried  to  point  out  the  intimate 
relationship  between  the  tangle  of  legends  which 
envelops  the  immortal  and  mysterious  prophet 
al-Khadhir,  the  singular  hero  of  Muhammedan  folk- 
lore, and  the  popular  Messianic  notions  in  Judaism.1 
Ere  long  the  Messianic  idea  of  Judaism,  transplanted 
on  the  soil  of  Muhamedanism,  came  in  contact 
with  a  belief  which  had  originated  in  Christianity, 
leading  to  a  most  curious  combination — we  refer  to 
the  conception  of  the  Return,  or  the  Second  Coming, 
of  Christ. 

Though  lightly  touched  upon  in  the  Koran,  this 
dogma  rapidly  assumed  a  crystallized  form.  Ac- 
cording to  the  tenets  of  Islam,  it  was  not  Jesus  who 
was  nailed  to  the  cross,  but  an  entirely  different  person 
who  had  assumed  his  features, — it  is  the  well-known 
doctrine  of  Docetism,  which  had  gained  wide  cur- 
rency also  among  heterodox  Christian  sects.  Jesus 
himself  ascended  to  Heaven  whence  in  the  fulness  of 
Time  he  would  come  down  on  earth  and — here  we 
witness  its  amalgamation  with  the  Messianic  idea  of 
Judaism — usher  in  the  golden  era  of  peace  and 
prosperity,  or,  to  put  it  in  the  terms  of  the  Arabic 
phrase,  which  recurs  with  the  regularity  of  a  refrain 
in  Muhammedan  literature,  "to  fill  the  earth  with 
justice,  even  as  it  is  now  filled  with  injustice."  We 
can  almost  imagine  ourselves  listening  to  the  words 


I1  See  the  writer's  book  Die  Chadhirlegende  und  der  Alex- 
anderroman  (Leipsic,  1913),  pp.  250-276.1 


THE  MESSIANIC  IDEA  IN  ISLAM  147 

of  Isaiah  when  we  read  in  the  Muhammedan  descrip- 
tions of  that  golden  age  that  "lions  will  feed  peace- 
fully with  camels,  tigers  with  oxen,  wolves  with  sheep, 
and  children  will  play  harmlessly  with  serpents."1 

Yet,  so  long  as  the  Messianic  idea  was  propagated 
in  this  diluted  form  of  an  eschatological  expectation, 
the  only  interest  it  could  arouse  among  Muhammedans 
was  that  of  a  -vague  theoretic  speculation  which, 
sicklied  o'er  with  the  pale  cast  of  thought,  was  without 
any  marked  effect  upon  life.  It  became  effective  and 
significant  when,  transgressing  the  limits  of  hazy  and 
transcendental  generalities,  it  found  its  embodiment 
in  concrete  conditions  and  aspirations.  To  bring 
this  about  there  was  need  of  a  well-defined  political 
constellation.  But  the  beginnings  of  Islam  were 
hardly  conducive  to  the  rise  of  a  Messianic  hope. 
Young  Islam  enjoyed  to  the  full  the  Messianic  king- 
dom upon  earth.  The  half-starved  hordes  of  Beduins 
were  now  revelling  in  the  plundered  luxuries  of  over- 
refined  nations  and,  having  but  a  little  while  ago 
fought  as  the  obedient  mercenaries  of  the  Byzantines 
and  Persians,  they  had  now  become  their  conquerors 
and  masters.  The  Messianic  ideal  seemed  to  them 
tangibly  embodied  right  in  the  present  and  had  no 
need  of  being  projected  into  a  distant  future. 

This  was  changed,  however,  when  in  the  year  656 
there  broke  out  a  bitter  and  bloody  civil  war  which 
rent  the  Muhammedan  world  in  twain,  and  when  Ali, 
the  cousin  and  son-in-law  of  the  Prophet,  and  later  on 


1  See    Snouck-Hurgronje,    Der    Mahdi    (reprint    from    the 
Revue  Coloniale  Internationale,  vol.  l),  p.  9. 


148  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

his  descendants  who,  because  of  their  exalted  kinship, 
were  firmly  entrenched  in  the  regard  of  the  Faithful, 
were  unscrupulously  robbed  of  their  heritage  by  the 
ungodly  Omayyads,  whose  innermost  heathenism  was 
but  poorly  disguised  by  the  mantle  of  official  Islamic 
orthodoxy.  Only  then,  when  the  wicked  Omayyad 
usurpers  seemed  to  fill  the  earth  with  injustice,  was 
the  soil  of  Islam  prepared  for  a  vigorous  development 
of  Messianic  hopes  and  expectations. 

Even  then,  however,  these  hopes  carried  but  little 
weight  with  the  ruling  classes,  with  the  party  in 
power,  which  now  as  before  was  perfectly  content  and 
happy.  For  Islam  continued  victorious  on  the  field 
of  battle,  and  the  victories  from  without  were  ac- 
companied by  economic  prosperity  from  within. 
Consequently,  the  Messianic  ideas  had  to  limit  their 
appeal  to  the  vanquished  classes,  to  the  parties  of 
opposition,  which  had  been  made  to  feel  the  sting  of 
defeat  and  oppression. 

There  were  two  parties  which  were  engaged  in  a 
bitter  struggle  with  the  powers  at  the  helm  of  the 
State.  On  the  one  hand,  there  were  the  democratic 
Kharijites  who  advocated  the  view  that  the  office 
of  Caliph  was  a  matter  of  election  and  open  to  every 
faithful  believer,  demanding  of  the  ruler  of  Islam  not 
aristocratic  birth  but  merely  strict  compliance  with 
the  divinely  ordained  law.  There  were,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  legitimistic  Shiites  who  believed  in  the 
hereditary  nature  of  the  Caliphate  and  looked  upon 
AH  and  his  descendants  as  the  only  rightful  claimants 
to  the  throne  of  Islam,  denouncing  the  present 
Muhammedan  rulers  as  wicked  usurpers. 


THE  MESSIANIC  IDEA  IN  ISLAM  149 

Now  the  Kharijites  were  but  little  susceptible  to 
Messianic  speculations,  because,  recruited  as  they 
mostly  were  from  the  unbridled  dwellers  of  the  desert 
and  unhesitatingly  resorting  to  acts  of  terrorism,  they 
were  able  to  advance  their  cause  with  dagger  and 
sword,  and  could  easily  dispense  with  the  help  of  a 
Messiah.  Hence  the  Messianic  expectations  were 
limited  in  their  influence  to  the  party  of  the  Shiites, 
which  was  largely  made  up  of  the  over-refined  and 
effeminate  city  dwellers  and,  being  the  helpless 
victims  of  ever  new  disappointments  and  persecu- 
tions, needed  the  comforting  assurance  of  the  appear- 
ance of  a  Messiah  who  would  fill  the  earth  with 
justice,  even  as,  at  least  in  their  case,  it  was  filled 
with  injustice. 

The  conception,  advocated  in  the  foregoing,  of  the 
development  of  the  Messianic  idea  in  Islam  may  serve 
at  the  same  time  as  an  answer  to  another  question 
which  has  been  frequently  discussed  by  modern  in- 
vestigators of  Islam, — the  question  as  to  the  origin 
of  Shiitism.  Until  recently  it  has  been  customary, 
largely  under  the  influence  of  Kremer  and  Dozy,  to 
consider  Shiitism  an  outgrowth  of  the  Persian  spirit, 
for  the  reason  that  Shiitism,  as  was  observed  long 
ago,  contains  many  elements  which  are  specifically 
Persian  in  character,  and  that  its  professors  are 
principally  recruited  from  among  the  Persians,  even 
as  the  Persia  of  today  is  still  the  official  center  of  the 
Shiitic  doctrine.  Lately,  however,  scholars  have 
come  to  recognize  the  inadequacy  of  these  arguments. 
For  the  Persian  ideas  which  are  found  in  Shiitism  are 
undoubtedly  characteristic  of  its  subsequent  phases 


150  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

and  prove  nothing,  as  far  as  the  question  of  origin  is 
concerned.  And  as  for  the  nationality  of  its  ad- 
herents, while  it  is  an  unquestionable  fact  that  in  a 
later  age  the  Persian  population  was  more  attracted 
towards  Shiitic  heterodoxy  than  towards  the  orthodox 
form  of  Islam,  the  first  and  the  earliest  exponents  of 
Shiitism  were  just  as  unquestionably  Arabs  of  the 
purest  water.  Proceeding  from  these  observations, 
Wellhausen  in  his  treatise  "the  Religio-Political 
Opposition  Parties  in  Ancient  Islam"  advanced  the 
hypothesis  that  the  origin  of  Shiitism  is  to  be  looked 
for  in  Judaism,  though  he  thought  of  an  entirely  dif- 
ferent phase  of  Judaism  and  failed  altogether  to  take 
into  account  the  complex  ideas  centering  around  Jew- 
ish Messianism. 

The  Jewish  origin  of  Shiitism  is  suggested  in  the 
Arabic  sources  themselves.  For  they  all  point  to  a 
Jew  from  Southern  Arabia,  by  the  name  of  Abdallah 
Ibn  Saba  as  the  founder  of  the  first  Shiitic  sect.1 
Taken  by  itself,  this  fact  would  scarcely  be  sufficient 
to  impress  us.  For  students  of  Islam  are  well  aware 
of  the  knack  of  Muhammedan  theologians  to  lay 
every  heresy  and  wickedness  in  Islam  at  the  door  of  a 
Jew.  But  the  indicated  role  of  Abdallah  Ibn  Saba 
is  supported  by  other  more  reliable  data.  What 
then  were  the  teachings  of  this  Jewish-Muhammedan 
sectarian?  In  reply  to  this  question,  we  receive  an 
answer  which  is  no  answer.     For  the  Arabic  authors 


[l  The  entire  material  bearing  on  this  mysterious  personality 
is  collected  and  discussed  in  my  treatise  Abdallah  b.  Saba,  der 
Begrnender  der  Schi'a  und  sein  juedischer  Ursprung,  in  vols.  23 
and  24  (1909-1910)  of  the  Zeitschrift  fuer  Assyriologie.] 


THE  MESSIANIC  IDEA  IN  ISLAM  151 

persist  in  piling  around  him  a  whole  mound  of  strange 
and  fanciful  doctrines  which  bear  the  unmistakable 
imprint  of  a  later  development  of  Shiitism  and  cannot 
possibly  have  been  originated  by  him.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  the  Muhammedan  theologians  are  hard  at 
work  to  model  the  record  of  this  founder  of  Shiitism 
after  the  pattern  of  the  sectarian  chieftains  who  lived 
at  a  much  later  age.1 

What  then,  we  may  ask  again,  were  the  real  tenets 
of  Abdallah  Ibn  Saba?  It  is  fortunate,  indeed,  that 
in  the  jumble  of  unreliable  notices  concerning  our 
hero  there  is  one  piece  of  information  which  bears  the 
impress  of  truth  on  its  face  and  may  well  serve 
as  our  point  of  departure.  The  Arabic  historians 
relate,  in  substantial  agreement  with  one  another  and 
in  evident  good  faith,  that  AH,  who  gradually  began 
to  chafe  under  the  excessive  veneration  of  his  Jewish 
admirer,  expelled  Abdallah  Ibn  Saba  to  the  city  of 
Mada'in,  the  ancient  Ctesiphon.  This  bit  of  in- 
formation falls  well  in  line  with  the  following  sig- 
nificant statement  of  an  old  Arabic  writer  which  is 
supported  by  an  unimpeachable  chain  of   authorities:2 

When  the  rumor  of  Ali's  murder  reached  the  ears  of 
Abdallah  Ibn  Saba  in  Mada'in  he  exclaimed:  'Even  were 
you  to  bring  me  the  brain  of  Ali  packed  in  seventy  bundles 
I  would  yet  refuse  to  believe  in  his  death.  He  has  surely 
not  died;  he  is  alive  and  will  continue  to  live  until  he  will 
come  down  and  fill  the  earth  with  justice  even  as  it  is  now 
filled  with  injustice.' 


1  Compare  my  Heterodoxies  of  the  Shiites,  Vol.  II,  p.  100. 
See  the  quotation  in  my  article  Abdallah  b.  Saba   (Zeit- 
schrift  fuer  Assyrioiogie,  vol  24),  p.  32 If. 


152  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

From  another  source  we  learn  that  Abdallah  Ibn 
Saba  was  of  the  belief  that  AH  resided  in  the  clouds, 
and  this  curious  notice  is  fully  borne  out  by  the  fact, 
recorded  elsewhere,  that  this  view  was  widely  current 
in  the  'Irak  province,  the  region  of  ancient  Babylonia, 
where  Ali  fought  and  died,  and  is,  moreover,  sub- 
stantiated by  a  very  ancient  poem  which  ridicules 
the  adherents  of  Ali  "who  send  their  greetings  to  the 
clouds." 

Putting  these  scattered  threads  together,  we  arrive 
at  the  conclusion  that  the  doctrine  of  Abdallah  Ibn 
Saba  represents  a  faithful  copy  of  the  Messianic  idea 
of  Judaism.  Ali  is  the  Messiah.  It  was  not  Ali  in 
person  who  was  assassinated  but  somebody  else  who 
suffered  in  his  stead — -here  we  have  the  modifying 
influence  of  the  Docetic  doctrine.  Ali  himself 
ascended  to  Heaven,  where,  like  the  Jewish  Messiah, 
he  still  keeps  in  hiding,  but  in  the  fulness  of  time,  he 
will  emerge  from  his  concealment  and,  coming  down 
in  the  clouds,  will  usher  in  the  golden  age  of  peace  and 
righteousness.1 

Thus  it  came  about  that  the  Messianic  idea  of 
Judaism,  which,  wedded  to  the  eschatological  dogma 
of  the  Second  Coming  of  Christ,  had  been  nothing  more 
than  an  academic  abstraction,  was  suddenly  clothed 
with  flesh  and  sinew  through  its  contact  with  the 
tangible  interests  of  the  present,  and  thereby  became 


^The  view  set  forth  in  the  text  has  been  amplified  and  in 
part  modified  by  the  author  in  the  above-quoted  treatise  on 
Abdallah  Ibn  Saba  (Zeitschrift  fuer  Assyriologie,  vol  24,  p. 
3  ft),  according  to  which  Abdallah's  Messianic  conceptions  were 
largely  influenced  by  the  semi-heterodox  ideas  contained  in 
apocryphal  literature. 1 


THE  MESSIANIC  IDEA  IN  ISLAM  153 

a  driving  force  and  a  most  baneful  factor  in  the  entire 
subsequent  development  of  Islam. 

For  here  an  example  had  been  set  which  many 
found  it  easy  to  follow.  Every  descendant  of  AH  who 
had  heart  enough  to  place  himself  at  the  head  of  an 
organized  movement  against  the  usurpers  on  the 
throne  of  the  Caliphs  had  no  difficulty  in  gaining 
adherents  as  soon  as  he  proclaimed  himself  the 
Messiah  who  was  predestined  to  fill  the  earth  with 
justice.  And  even  when,  as  actually  happened  in 
most  cases,  the  Messianic  pretender  suffered  an  igno- 
minious death  at  the  hands  of  the  ruling  powers,  his 
followers  could  easily  escape  the  pangs  of  disillusion- 
ment by  comforting  themselves  with  the  belief  that 
somebody  else  had  perished  in  his  place,  whereas  the 
Messiah  himself  had  withdrawn  into  a  place  of 
safety  whence  at  the  right  moment  he  would  emerge 
as  the  savior  of  his  people. 

The  deeply  penetrating  influence  of  this  circle  of 
ideas  may  be  seen  in  full  operation  shortly  after  the 
death  of  Ali. 

A  few  years  after  the  assassination  of  Ali  his  son 
Husein  arose  to  claim  the  throne  of  the  Caliphate,  by 
virtue  of  his  being  the  grandson  of  the  Prophet. 
When  he  was  killed  by  the  henchmen  of  the  Omayyad 
Government,  some  of  the  Shiites  transferred  their 
allegiance  to  his  half-brother  Muhammed  Ibn  al- 
Hanafiyya.1  He  was  proclaimed  by  his  adherents 
as  the  Messiah,  or,  to  use  the  Arabic  term  which  is 


1Husein  was  born  to  Ali  by  Fatima,  the  daughter  of  the 
Prophet.  Muhammed  was  Ali's  son  by  another  wife,  who  be- 
longed to  the  Hanifa  tribe.  Hence  Muhammed's  Arabic  name, 
which  means  "Son  of  the  Hanifite  woman." 


154  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

found  here  for  the  first  time,  as  the  Mahdi,  "the 
Rightly  Guided  One,"  and  was  expected  to  inaugurate 
the  dominion  of  righteousness  on  earth.  A  political 
adventurer,  by  the  name  of  Mukhtar,  succeeded  in 
making  this  belief  subservient  to  his  own  selfish 
interests,  with  the  result  that  the  Messianic  idea 
became  the  slogan  of  a  dangerous  insurrection  which 
was  quelled  in  blood  after  a  terrible  struggle.  When  a 
little  later  Muhammed  Ibn  al-Hanafiyya  mysteriously 
disappeared,  without  leaving  a  trace,  the  belief 
gained  wide  currency  that  he  was  not  dead  but  that 
he  had  taken  up  his  secret  abode  in  the  wooded 
mountains  of  Radhwa,  where  as  the  prince  of  peace 
he  stood  at  the  head  of  a  Messianic  Kingdom  and 
whence  in  the  fulness  of  Time  he  would  manifest 
himself  to  extend  the  blessings  of  a  Messianic  exist- 
ence to  the  rest  of  mankind.  The  depth  of  this  belief 
may  be  gained  from  the  fact  that  nearly  one  hundred 
years  later  two  highly  gifted  Arabic  poets,  as-Sayyid 
al-Himyari  and  Kuthayyir,  dedicated  their  genuine 
and  inspired  art  to  the  propagation  of  this  faith. 
The  poems  which  celebrate  Muhammed  Ibn  al- 
Hanafiyya  as  the  Messiah  are  marked  by  a  religious 
fervor  and  depth  of  feeling  which  is  seldom  matched 
in  discipline-loving  Islam.  To  illustrate  the  Messianic 
character  of  these  ideas  I  may  be  permitted  to  repro- 
duce a  few  verses  from  a  poem  of  as-Sayyid  al- 
Himyari  in  a  literal  translation: 

Years  and  months  have  passed  since  Ibn  al-Hanafiyya 
has  gone  into  hiding,  but  he  still  can  be  seen  in  a  ridge  of 
the  Radhwa  mountains,  surrounded  by  leopards  and  lions. 
His  abode  is  in  the  midst  of  mountain  summits,  whilst 
big-eyed   kine  and  young  ostriches  march   in  the  evening 


THE  MESSIANIC  IDEA  IX  ISLAM  155 

side  by  side  with  freckled  goats.     Alongside  of  them  the 

beasts  of  prey  are  seen  feeding,  yet  none  of  these  falls  upon 

them  with  violence  in  order  to  tear  them.     There  the  tame 

beasts  are  safe  trom  destruction,  and  they  all  feed  with  equal 

fearlessness  on  the  same  pasture  grounds  and  at  the  same 

drinking  place. 

Many  more  Messianic  references  might  be  culled 

from   the   verses  of   these   two   poets   but   the  above 

quotation   will   suffice    to   illustrate   the   general   fact 

of   the    influence   of   the    Messianic   idea    upon    Mu- 

hammedanism. 

From  now  on  the  Messianic  hopes  and  speculations 
form  a  standing  feature  in  the  history  of  Islam.  In- 
numerable pretenders  arise  to  make  similar  claims, 
and  suffer,  together  with  their  followers,  defeat 
and  death  for  their  convictions.  The  fabric  of 
Messianic  ideas  becomes  more  and  more  permeated 
with  elements  of  Persian  thought  and  carries  in  this 
new  combination  an  even  wider  appeal.  Out  of  the 
vast  array  of  Messianic  or  Mahdistic  movements  in 
Islam  I  shall  single  out  for  a  brief  characterization 
two  or  three,  which  were  particularly  far-reaching  in 
their  consequences. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  tenth  century  a  shrewd 
adventurer  managed,  with  the  help  of  forged  genea- 
logical records,  to  pass  himself  off  as  a  descendant  of 
Ali  and  gain  credence  for  his  claims  as  the  Messiah. 
He  became  the  founder  of  the  Fatimid  Caliphate, 
which  for  three  centuries  exerted  so  powerful  an 
influence  upon  the  destinies  of  Islam. 

The  Mahdistic  beliefs  form  in  like  manner  the  sub- 
structure of  the  terrible  propaganda  of  the  Isma'iliyya 
party  which  freely  resorted  to  crime  and  murder  to 
blaze  a  path  for  its  ambitions. 


156  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

A  most  remarkable  variety  of  the  Mahdistic  faith 
may  be  found  in  Persia  where  it  still  constitutes  the 
official  religion  of  the  land.  It  is  the  doctrine  of  the 
so-called  Ithna-'ashariyya,  or  "Twelvers."  This 
Shiitic  sect  believes  in  twelve  Mahdis  who  were  all 
the  direct  descendants  of  Ali  and  who  bequeathed  the 
dignity  of  Mahdi  from  father  to  son.  The  eleventh 
Mahdi,  called  al-Hasan  al-'Askari,  died  in  the  year 
260  of  the  Hegira,  leaving  a  little  son  by  the  name  of 
Muhammed,  who  in  his  fifth  year  disappeared 
mysteriously  through  a  subterranean  passage.  This 
five  year  old  boy  is  believed  to  be  the  twelfth  and 
last  Mahdi,  "the  Rising  One."  According  to  the 
generally  accepted  belief  of  the  Persian  Shiites, 
Muhammed  continues  to  live  in  hiding,  but  in  the 
fulness  of  Time,  he  will  arise  in  Messianic  splendor 
as  the  Savior  of  the  Faithful.  For  many  centuries  it 
was  customary  in  Persia  to  keep  saddled  horses  in 
readiness  for  him,  so  that  he  might  appear  on  horse- 
back when  he  came  to  inaugurate  the  golden  age  of 
the  Messiah  and  fill  the  earth  with  justice,  even  as  it 
is  filled  with  injustice. 

Thus  far  we  have  dealt  exclusively  with  the  Mah- 
distic movements  within  Shiitism,  in  which  they  find 
their  psychological  substructure  and  appear  in  their 
proper  setting.  In  conclusion,  we  may  be  permitted 
to  sketch  briefly  the  attitude  of  the  rest  of  Islam 
towards  the  question  of  the  Madhi. 

We  have  already  had  occasion  to  point  out  that  in 
the  early  beginnings  of  Islam  the  party  at  the  helm 
of  the  State  was  too  well  satisfied  with  the  actual 
conditons  of  the  present  to  foster  aspirations  of  a 


THE  MESSIANIC  IDEA  IN  ISLAM  157 

Messianic  nature.  But  this  happy  condition  was 
gradually  changed.  As  a  resi  It  of  the  constantly 
growing  tyranny  and  profligacy  of  the  ruling  Caliphs 
the  lands  of  Islam  sank  to  ever  lower  depths  of 
economic  misery,  and  the  political  prestige  of  the 
Muhammedan  power  could  not  escape  the  effects  of  the 
general  decline.  It  was  therefore  natural  that 
Mahdistic  expectations  should  also  gain  a  footing  in 
the  orthodox  section  of  Islam.  But,  not  being  attached 
to  definite  personalities  as  they  were  in  Shiitism,  these 
hopes  remained  of  a  purely  impersonal  character  and 
were  perforce  reduced  to  an  abstract  eschatological 
conception,  according  to  which  at  the  end  of  Time 
there  will  arise  a  Mahdi  who  will  fill  the  earth  with 
justice.  But  here  this  Messianic  expectation  was 
bound  to  clash  with  the  already  existing  belief  in  the 
Second  Coming  of  Christ,  who,  as  we  have  seen,  was 
equally  destined  to  fill  the  earth  with  justice.  The 
functions  assigned  to  Christ  and  to  the  Mahdi  had 
become  mere  duplicates.  However,  the  resourceful 
theologians  of  Islam  were  quick  in  adjusting  this 
difficulty  They  effected  a  compromise  between  the 
two  conflicting  views  which  has  been  generally  ac- 
cepted by  the  Muhammedans.  According  to  this 
compromise,  the  Mahdi  will  be  the  first  to  appear  and 
to  inaugurate  the  golden  age.  The  latter  will  then  be 
interrupted  by  the  appearance  of  the  Anti-Christ,  or 
the  Dajjal, — as  he  is  called  in  Arabic, — whereupon 
Jesus  will  manifest  himself  and  establish  permanently 
the  Kingdom  of  the  Messiah. 

Yet  the  Mahdistic  belief  of  orthodox  Islam  cannot 
compare  either  in  validity  or  in  popularity  with  that 
of  Shiitism.     To  realize  this  we  onlv  have  to  recall  the 


158  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

fact  that  in  orthodox  Islam  it  never  became  a  binding 
article  of  faith,  so  that,  to  quote  but  one  instance  out 
of  many,  the  followers  of  the  strictly  orthodox 
Hanefite  system  of  law — one  of  the  four  accepted  legal 
systems  in  Islam — openly  refuse  to  acknowledge  it, 
whilst  a  number  of  theologians  of  the  highest  standing 
and  of  unimpeachable  orthodoxy  who  adhere  to  the 
other    legal    systems    maintain    an    equally    sceptical 

attitude  towards  it. 

*     *     * 

The  history  of  the  Mahdistic  movements  form  a 
gloomy  chapter  in  the  annals  of  Muhammedanism. 
A  heavy  trail  of  blood  marks  the  course  followed  by 
them.  Untold  sacrifices,  both  of  mind  and  of  body, 
have  been  offered  on  the  altar  of  the  Mahdi  doctrine 
throughout  the  centuries.  Round  about  it  has  been 
piled  up  a  huge  mound  of  unconscious  deceit  and 
deliberate  fraud,  of  fanciful,  nay  preposterous  specu- 
lations. Yet  out  of  this  repulsive  chaos  there  breaks 
forth  the  yearning  cry  after  the  golden  age  when  the 
earth  will  be  filled  with  justice,  even  as  it  is  now 
filled  with  injustice.  It  is  this  cry  which  exercises  upon 
us,  the  men  of  a  modern  age,  an  equally  soothing  and 
appeasing  effect.  For,  however  insistently  cold 
scientific  speculation  may  remind  us  of  the  blind 
brutal  laws  of  nature;  however  emphatically  modern 
philosophic  thought  may  repudiate  a  world  view 
which  is  based  upon  the  pursuit  of  human  happiness, 
at  the  very  bottom  of  our  souls  there  still  persists  the 
saving  belief  in  a  Messianic  future  when  the  earth 
will  no  more  be  full  of  injustice,  and  when  humanity 
will  be  governed  by  the  ideals  of  justice  and  righteous- 
ness. 


MOSES  MAIMONIDES* 

\  I  7  HEN  the  generation  which  arose  after  Mai- 
*  »  monides  crystallized  its  estimate  of  this  great 
personality  in  the  famous  epigram:  Mi-moshe  we-'ad 
Moshe  lo  kom  ke-Moshe,  "From  Moses  till  Moses 
there  was  none  like  Moses,"  and  thus  put  Moshe  ben 
Maimon  on  the  same  level  with  Moshe  ben  Amram — 
its  intention  was  not  merely  to  emphasize  the  over- 
whelming greatness  of  Maimonides,  but  rather  to 
accentuate  his  unique  position  in  Jewish  life.  Just 
as  Moses,  according  to  the  well-known  doctrine 
of  Maimonides,  differed  from  the  other  prophets 
not  merely  in  degree,  but  in  essence,  so  Maimonides 
himself,  in  the  opinion  of  posterity,  was  not  only 
superior  to  other  great  men  in  Jewish  history,  but 
stood  on  an  altogether  different  level. 

Maimonides  was  the  greatest  Jewish  thinker,  the 
greatest  Jewish  scholar,  perhaps  the  greatest  Jewish 
writer,  and  one  of  the  greatest  Jewish  individualities — 
but  the  uniqueness  of  Maimonides,  which  made 
posterity  compare  him  with  Moses,  "the  man  of 
God,"  lies  elsewhere;  it  lies  in  the  fact  that  Mai- 
monides, like  Moses,  took  up  the  gigantic  problem  of 

*Address  delivered  at  the  Jewish  Theological  Seminary  of 
America,  December  28,  1904,  at  the  commemoration  of  the  seven 
hundredth  anniversary  of  the  death  of  Maimonides.  Published 
for  the  first  time  in  the  New  Era  Illustrated  Magazine  (New  York) 
January,  1905. 


160  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

Judaism  in  its  totality  and  tried  to  solve  it  in  its 
totality.  Maimonides  was  one  of  the  most  many- 
sided  personalities  known  in  Jewish  history — for,  in 
addition  to  all  his  other  qualifications,  he  was  also  a 
famous  physician  and  a  great  mathematician  and 
astronomer, — and  to  convey  an  adequate  idea  of  all 
the  activities  of  Maimonides  within  the  narrow  limits 
of  a  lecture,  would  be  an  achievement  possible  only 
for  the  unparalleled  systematic  mind  of  a  Maimonides. 
Therefore,  on  the  solemn  occasion  offered  by  our 
celebration  tonight,  I  may  be  permitted  to  discuss 
only  those  features  of  Maimonides  which  constitute 
his  uniqueness,  and  to  touch  upon  the  others  merely 
in  passing. 

When  Maimonides  appeared  on  the  scene,  the  sun 
of  the  Jewish-Arabic  period  had  already  passed  its 
zenith.  For  more  than  four  centuries  had  this  sun 
shed  its  rays  upon  the  Jews,  bringing  thousands  of 
germs  to  blossom,  ripening  a  rich  harvest  on  which  we 
still  feed  today.  The  fruits  of  that  harvest  were 
plentiful  and  multifarious.  The  spiritual  inheritance 
of  Judaism  was  fostered  and  increased  in  all  direc- 
tions. The  science  of  Judaism  sprang  up  in  incom- 
parable beauty.  The  Bible,  the  Hebrew  language, 
Hebrew  poetry,  the  Talmud,  the  Halaka — all  became 
the  object  of  most  careful  and  most  fruitful  study. 
At  the  same  time,  the  thoughts  and  spiritual  achieve- 
ments of  the  non-jews  were  assiduously  cultivated  and 
assimilated,  and  many  endeavors  made  toward  recon- 
ciling them  with  the  content  of  Judaism.  Maimonides, 
who  surpassed  all  his  predecessors  in  ability  and  learn- 
ing, also  surpassed  them  in  the  success  of  his  work. 


MOSES  MAI MON IDES  161 

He  made  the  whole  intellectual  wealth  of  the  age 
his  own  possession.  In  the  field  both  of  Jewish  learning 
and  of  non-Jewish  thought  he  brought  these  endeavors 
to  perfection.  He  was  a  greater  scholar  and  a  greater 
philosopher  than  all  his  predecessors,  but  the  feature 
that  distinguishes  him  from  all  others  and  constitutes 
his  uniqueness  is  the  fact  that,  in  contradistinction 
from  all  others,  he  undertook  with  perfect  conscious- 
ness the  task  to  utilize  learning  and  thought  for  life. 

We  are  accustomed  in  our  days  to  boast  of  being 
in  possession  of  pure  science,  of  an  unconditioned 
philosophy,  which  are  independent  of  time  and  space 
and  pay  no  regard  to  the  interests  of  life.  At  bottom, 
however,  this  is  but  a  self-delusion.  Science  and 
philosophy  are  born  of  the  human  intellect  which, 
consciously  or  unconsciously,  is  influenced  by  human 
emotions,  and  these  in  turn  are  dictated  by  life. 
Not  that  Maimonides  intended  to  falsify  science  and 
philosophy  to  meet  the  conveniences  of  life,  but  his 
eye  of  genius  perceived  the  invisible  threads,  which 
run  from  the  abstract  domain  of  thought  to  the  firm 
soil  of  reality,  and  he  transformed  the  dead  mass  of 
learning  into  living  energy.  In  this  way  he  pro- 
moted the  real  interests  of  learning.  For,  as  our  sages 
say,  "Great  is  that  learning  which  calls  forth  practical 
work,"  or,  as  the  founder  of  modern  Jewish  Science 
(Zunz)  put  it:  Wahre  Wissenschaft  ist  tatenerzeugend, 
"Real  learning  brings  forth  great  deeds." 

And  life  at  that  time  did  present  the  Jewish  people 
with  a  great  problem.  It  was  neither  more  nor  less 
than  the  question  of  the  preservation  of  Judaism. 
The  sun  of  the  Jewish-Arabic  period  had  passed  its 


162  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

zenith  not  only  in  spiritual,  but  also  in  political  life. 
Islam,  which  includes  among  its  five  fundamental 
precepts  the  Jihad,  the  "holy  war"  against  the  un- 
believers, was  infinitely  kinder  toward  the  Jews  than 
was  Christianity  with  its  theoretical  tenet  of  brotherly 
love.  Yet,  in  the  course  of  time  the  Mohammedans 
learned  from  the  Christians.  A  period  of  persecutions 
began.  The  fanatical  Almohades,  the  "Unitarians" 
of  Islam,  arose  in  Northern  Africa  and  compelled  the 
"unbelievers"  to  choose  between  expulsion  and  con- 
version. In  Southern  Arabia,  in  Yemen,  conditions 
were  similar.  In  most  Christian  countries  the  Jews 
were  scarcely  happier.  Everywhere  their  position  was 
unsafe,  and  their  welfare  depended  upon  the  whims 
of  the  rulers.  Heavy  storms  were  approaching. 
It  was  necessary  to  equip  the  ship  of  Judaism  in  order 
that  she  might  resist  the  coming  tempest.  There 
were  sufficient,  nay,  abundant  provisions  on  board, 
but  the  question  was  how  to  make  the  best  use  of 
them. 

It  is  a  matter  of  regret  that  we  are  not  fully  ac- 
quainted with  the  spiritual  conditions  which  pre- 
vailed at  the  time  of  Maimonides.  But  as  far  as  we 
may  judge  from  the  writings  of  Maimonides  himself, 
there  were  three  different  classes  of  Jews.  First  there 
was  the  bulk  of  the  people,  ignorant  and  stolid.  To  be 
sure,  ignorance  of  Judaism  was  not  yet  as  fashionable 
nor  as  extensive  as  it  is  nowadays;  still,  the  Jews  of 
that  age  did  not  appear  sufficiently  equipped  for  a 
stubborn  resistance.  Nearly  all  of  them  were  able  to 
read  and  understand  the  Pentateuch,  but  this  was 
about  all.     They  were  ignorant  of  the  whole  field  of 


MOSES  MAIMONIDES  163 

Jewish  tradition,  and  in  their  practical  life  were 
slavishly  dependent  upon  the  Talmudists. 

These,  in  turn,  formed  the  second  class.  They  were 
absorbed  in  the  hair-splitting  discussions  of  theTalmud 
and  lacked  all  understanding  for  the  needs  of  their 
time  or  the  thoughts  of  their  period.  Their  Judaism 
was  confined  to  the  "four  ells  of  the  Halaka,"  and, 
excluded  from  light  and  air,  it  became  damp  and 
mouldy. 

Finally  there  were  the  "intellectuals,"  the  thinkers, 
who  had  absorbed  both  the  content  of  Judaism  and 
the  results  of  non-Jewish  culture,  but  were  unable  to 
bring  them  into  harmony  with  each  other.  These 
heterogeneous  elements  within  them  were  constantly 
struggling  with  one  another,  and  the  inner  conflict 
created  a  split  in  their  whole  spiritual  life,  destroying 
their  energy  and  their  power  of  resistance. 

At  that  moment,  Maimonides  made  his  appearance, 
and  with  his  matchless  genius  brought  help  and  salva- 
tion to  all  the  classes  of  Jews,  leading  them  on  a  level 
road  to  the  sources  of  Judaism,  presenting  them  with 
a  comprehensive  system  of  Jewish  thought  and  prac- 
tice, showing  them  the  unity  between  religion  and 
philosophy,  and  so  enabling  them  to  face  with  confi- 
dence the  persecutions  that  were  approaching.  We 
are  hardly  in  a  position  fully  to  realize  what  Mai- 
monides was  to  the  Jews  of  his  time.  When,  this 
day  seven  hundred  years  ago,  on  the  20th  of  Tebet, 
4965,  the  Jews  of  Egypt,  having  ordered  a  public 
fast,  read  in  their  synagogues  the  chapter  of  the 
Pentateuch  threatening  the  Jewish  nation  with 
awful  disasters  in  case  of  disobedience,  and  recited 


164  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

from  the  prophets  the  story  of  the  capture  of  the  Ark 
of  the  Covenant  by  the  Philistines,  they  thereby 
gave  expression  to  their  conviction  that  the  death 
of  Maimonides  was  a  national  disaster,  and  that  his 
disappearance  from  their  midst  was  equivalent  to  the 
capture  of  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant,  the  source  of 
Divine  information  and  inspiration. 

At  this  point  I  should  like  to  insert  a  few  brief 
remarks  concerning  the  life  and  personality  of  Mai- 
monides, which  form  a  proper  background  for  his 
activity.  Maimonides  died  at  the  age  of  nearly 
seventy.  He  was  born  on  the  14th  of  Nissan  (March 
30th)  1135,  at  one  o'clock  in  the  afternoon — this 
unique  record  of  the  exact  hour  of  his  birth  showing 
the  importance  which  his  contemporaries  assigned  to 
the  event.  He  was  born  in  Cordova  of  an  aristo- 
cratic Jewish  family,  which  had  furnished  that  com- 
munity with  rabbis — then  an  unpaid  and  honorary 
post — for  seven  generations.  His  father  Maimon 
was  a  highly  cultured  man,  versed  both  in  the  sources 
of  Judaism  and  in  the  science  and  literature  of  the 
Mohammedans.  His  first  education  Maimonides 
probably  received  from  his  father,  but  he  pursued  and 
perfected  it  under  Jewish  and  Mohammedan  teachers. 
When  Maimonides  was  thirteen  years  of  age,  Cordova 
was  conquered  by  the  Almohades,  and  he  and  his 
family  were  forced  to  flee  from  their  native  land. 
During  the  following  years  they  had  to  be  wanderers. 
A  few  years  they  resided  in  Fez,  in  Northern  Africa, 
and  for  a  short  time  sojourned  in  the  Holy  Land. 

We  have  very  little  knowledge  about  these  years 
of    Maimonides'    life.      This    lack    of     information, 


MOSES  MAIMONIDES  165 

coupled  with  the  eagerness  of  the  Mohammedan 
writers  to  make  this  overwhelming  personality  one 
of  their  own,  gave  rise  to  the  conjecture  that  Mai- 
monides  became  externally  a  convert  to  Islam.  But 
this  accusation,  which,  unfortunately  enough,  is 
repeated  by  some  Jewish  scholars,  has  no  foundation 
in  fact.  It  is  refuted  by  the  mere  consideration  that 
in  the  extremely  vehement  polemics  which  broke  out 
after  the  death  of  Maimonides  and  centered  around 
his  person  none  of  his  opponents  ever  makes  mention 
of  this  alleged  conversion,  which  would  surely  have 
proved  an  effective  weapon  in  the  hands  of  his  enemies 
to  discredit  his  life  work. 

Be  this  as  it  may,  Maimonides  devoted  these  years 
of  his  life,  as  best  he  could,  to  the  interests  of  Judaism. 
For  during  his  wanderings,  he  composed — often,  as  he 
himself  tells  us,  working  aboard  ship,  or  sojourning  at 
an  inn — his  first  great  work,  the  Commentary  on  the 
Mishnah.  At  last  he  established  himself  in  Cairo,  in 
the  neighborhood  called  Fostat,  under  the  tolerant 
sceptre  of  Saladin.  After  the  death  of  his  brother, 
with  whom  he  had  been  associated  in  the  jewelry 
trade,  he  made  up  his  mind  to  put  his  great  medical 
knowledge  to  practical  use  and  gradually  grew  to  be 
a  famous  physician  employed  both  by  the  court  and  all 
the  classes  of  the  population.  In  one  of  his  letters  he 
draws  a  most  vivid  picture  of  this  extensive  practice, 
which  occupied  him  day  and  night  and  scarcely  left 
him  time  for  his  meals.  In  spite  of  these  ab- 
sorbing professional  duties,  he  was  able — it  sounds 
almost  mysterious — to  discharge  the  functions  of  a 
rabbi — without  remuneration,  of  course, — to  answer 


166  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

the  numberless  religious  questions  addressed  to  him 
from  almost  all  the  corners  of  the  globe,  and  to  write 
his  two  other  standard  works,  the  Rabbinical  code 
Mishne  Torah,  and  his  philosophic  work  More  Nebu- 
khim,  in  addition  to  a  number  of  other  books  and  treat- 
ises on  Jewish  and  secular  topics. 

He  had  the  satisfaction  of  having,  in  Joseph  ibn 
Aknin;  a  pupil  who  worshipped  him  and  nevertheless 
— understood  him,  and  of  seeing  his  only  son  Abraham, 
born  to  him  in  his  fiftieth  year,  grow  up  in  his  spirit 
and  cultivate  his  ideals.  He  died,  when  not  yet 
seventy,  of  physical  exhaustion,  with  the  joyous 
conviction  that  he  had  faithfully  done  his  duty 
toward  his  own  generation  and  the  generations  to 
come. 

The  character  of  Maimonides  is  equalled  only  by 
his  intellect.  It  represents  a  beautiful  harmony  be- 
tween the  perfect  poise,  the  sophrosyne,  of  the  Greek 
philosopher,  and  the  deep  earnestness  of  the  Jewish 
Talmid  Haham.  Although  theoretically  conceiving 
the  practical  commandments  of  the  Law  as  a  means 
toward  an  end  for  the  masses,  he  did  not  belong  to 
that  class  of  people  who  like  religious  practices  only 
when  performed  by  others,  but  himself  observed  the 
ceremonial  law  with  the  greatest  punctiliousness.  He 
was  indignant  when  somebody  once  charged  him  with 
neglecting  a  certain  religious  custom,  even  though 
he  himself  had  declared  it  in  his  Code  to  be  im- 
material. 

May  Heaven  and  Earth  bear  witness  for  me  that  I  never 
neglected  it — he  apologizes  in  one  of  his  letters. — Why 
should  I  change  my  own  custom  and  the  custom  of  my 
fathers  without  a  reason,  as  long  as  it  is  not  contrary  to 
the  Law? 


MOSES  MAIMONIDES  167 

His  energy  was  inexhaustible;  else  he  would  not 
have  been  able  to  accomplish  the  tremendous  work 
he  actually  succeeded  in  accomplishing.  He  was 
always  true  to  himself,  and  in  his  activity  never  paid 
any  attention  to  the  blame  or  praise  of  the  people, 
but  acted  merely  according  to  his  innermost  convic- 
tion. In  spite  of  the  fame  he  had  attained,  he  re- 
mained amiable,  accessible  to  everybody,  extremely 
modest, — not  with  that  kind  of  modesty  which  is 
only  a  refined  form  of  vanity,  but  with  that  true 
modesty  which  measures  achievements  not  by  the 
shortcomings  of  others  but  by  the  greatness  of  the 
task. 

He  was  fully  aware  that  his  legal  code  was  the 
greatest  achievement  since  the  days  of  the  Mishnah; 
he  was  firmly  convinced  that  it  would  ultimately 
become  an  authoritative  book  for  future  generations, 
when  the  jealousy  and  conceit  of  his  contemporaries 
would  have  disappeared.  Yet  at  the  same  time  he 
resolutely  declined  to  take  any  measures  against  the 
envious  scholars  in  his  own  community  who  thought 
it  beneath  their  dignity  even  to  look  at  his  work. 

I  shall  never  try — Maimonides  declares  in  a  letter — to 
fight  for  my  own  sake.  My  dignity  and  the  purity  of  my 
character  are  more  of  an  honor  to  me  than  fighting  the  fools 
with  my  tongue  and  my  pen. 

And  in  a  letter  to  his  favorite  pupil,  Joseph  Ibn 
Aknin,  he  writes  in  a  similar  strain: 

You  must  know  that  I  am  always  ready  to  yield,  although 
it  would  do  me  much  harm  in  the  eyes  of  the  multitude. 
And  every  one  who  tries  to  prove  his  own  perfection  by  my 
imperfection,  even  if  he  be  the  least  among  scholars,  will  be 
readily  forgiven  by  me. 


168  I 'AST  AND  PRESENT 


I  could  quote  numerous  passages  of  the  same  kind, 
showing  the  admirable  and  lovable  disposition  of 
Maimonides.  But  we  have  to  return  to  our  main 
subject  and  show  in  what  way  Maimonides  acquitted 
himself  of  his  task. 

This  task  demanded  enormous,  unparalleled  powers, 
which  could  be  found  side  by  side  only  in  Maimonides. 
First,  he  was  the  possessor  of  an  incomparable  erudi- 
tion, so  that  he  was  able,  despite  constant  wanderings, 
and  without  having  a  book  at  his  disposal,  to  compose, 
at  the  age  of  twenty-three,  his  vast  commentary  on 
the  Mishnah,  dealing  with  nearly  all  branches  of  human 
knowledge.  Maimonides  was  one  of  the  greatest 
systematizers  that  ever  lived.  It  is  a  common 
charge,  which,  raised  by  non-Jews,  is  faithfully 
believed  by  Jews,  that  our  people  lack  all  sense  of 
system.  But  had  the  Jews  produced  only  the  one 
Maimonides,  they  might  point  to  him  as  a  most 
effective  argument  to  prove  the  absurdity  of  that 
charge. 

Maimonides  was  a  writer  of  extraordinary  power 
and  elegance.  But  Maimonides  was  much  more, 
besides.  He  was,  and  this  is  perhaps  his  greatest 
distinction,  not  only  a  logician  but  a  psychologist. 
This  is  a  most  important  point.  Maimonides  is 
usually  considered  a  rationalist,  and  justly  so. 
Reason,  thinking,  is  the  standard  by  which  he  meas- 
ures everything.  "Never  should  man,"  says  Mai- 
monides in  his  epistle  to  the  Jews  of  Marseilles, 
"throw  his  reason  behind  him,  for  his  eyes  are  not  in 
the  back  but  in  the  front."  This  follows  necessarily 
from  his  system  of  philosophy  which  declares  thinking 


MOSES  MAIMONIDES  169 

to  be  the  ultimate  destiny  of  mankind  and  the 
only  way  of  attaining  to  some  share  in  Divine  provi- 
dence and  immortality.  He  unreservedly  follows  his 
reason.  Although  fully  aware  that  the  acceptance 
of  the  theory  of  the  "eternity  of  the  world,"  as 
taught  by  Aristotle,  unavoidably  leads  to  the  anni- 
hilation of  all  positive  religion,  he  rejects  this  doctrine 
not  on  account  of  its  being  anti-religious,  but  on 
account  of  its  lacking  a  solid  philosophic  foundation. 
He  speaks  in  sarcastic  terms  of  the  Mohammedan 
philosophers  and  their  Jewish  apers,  who  are  satisfied 
with  an  artificial  reconciliation  between  Religion  and 
Philosophy,  and  take  the  facts  not  as  they  are,  but 
as  they  would  like  them  to  be. 

But  we  would  totally  misapprehend  the  attitude 
of  Maimonides  and  do  him  a  gross  injustice  were  we 
to  consider  him  exclusively  a  rationalist.  Maimonides 
declared  reason  to  be  the  highest  authority  in  philo- 
sophical and  spiritual  matters.  But  he  was  not  one 
of  those  one-sided  rationalists,  those  narrow-minded 
Maskilim,  who  consider  man  to  be  a  thinking  engine, 
a  reasoning  slot  machine  which  responds  only  when 
a  logical  formula  is  thrown  into  it, — who  swear  by 
the  old  superficial  doctrine  of  Socrates  that  man  has 
but  to  know  virtue  in  order  to  practice  it.  Mai- 
monides understood  better  than  any  one  of  his 
predecessors  and  contemporaries  that  human  life  is 
not  ruled  by  thoughts  and  formulas  but  by  emotions, 
that  thoughts,  therefore,  first  have  to  be  transformed 
into  emotions  in  order  to  become  a  real  power  in  life. 
Just  as  the  celestial  spheres,  according  to  the  doctrine 
of  Maimonides,  are  able  to  move  only    because    their 


170  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

logical  contemplation  of  God  has  become  a  psycho- 
logical desire  for  God,  so  human  actions  can  be  called 
forth  not  by  the  recognition  of  the  truth,  but  by  the 
desire  for  the  truth. 

This  perception  marks  Maimonides  as  a  great 
pedagogue.  For  to  be  a  pedagogue  means  to  under- 
stand human  nature,  to  be  able  to  put  one's  self  into 
the  soul  of  another,  to  be  content  with  standards  and 
demands  which  one  has  himself  outgrown.  Mai- 
monides learned  this  pedagogy  from  his  great  model 
Moses,  whose  activity  he  conceived  primarily  as  that 
of  a  pedagogue.  Although  the  religious  command- 
ments have  to  be  performed  without  any  regard  to 
reward  or  punishment,  yet  he  unhesitatingly  declares 
that  "it  does  not  matter  if  the  multitude  fulfills  the 
commandments  out  of  fear  of  punishment."  The  ma- 
terialistic conception  of  life  after  death  is  most  repug- 
nant to  him,  and  he  makes  the  greatest  efforts  to 
combat  it.  Still,  when  a  Jew  of  Bagdad,  who  professed 
to  be  an  ignoramus,  asked  him  for  an  explanation  of 
what  the  future  life  really  was,  he  made  the  following 
characteristic  reply: 

As  for  your  request  to  explain  to  you  the  immortality  of 
the  soul,  I  have  given  in  my  various  writings  all  the  explana- 
tions which  are  necessary,  and  I  have  tried  my  best  to 
make  it  as  intelligible  as  possible.  But  I  should  advise  you 
not  to  burden  your  mind  with  these  deep  questions,  for  the 
conception  of  incorporeal  beings  is  extremely  difficult  even 
for  great  scholars — how  much  more  for  beginners  who  have 
no  experience  in  these  matters.  You  had  better  form  for 
yourself  an  idea  which  you  are  able  to  understand.  It 
will  not  injure  your  religious  convictions  if  you  believe  that 
those  partaking  in  the  future  life  are  bodies,  so  long  as  the 
belief   in    its   reality    becomes    firmly   established    in   your 


MOSES  MAIMONIDES  171 

heart.  Even  if  you  believe  that  they  eat,  drink  and  beget 
their  kind  somewhere  in  the  uppermost  heaven  or  in 
Paradise,  it  will  not  do  any  harm  to  your  faith.  There  are 
many  other  things  of  which,  though  they  are  far  more 
intelligible,  people  are  ignorant,  and  still  ignorance  of  them 
does  not  injure  the  principles  of  their  religious  belief. 

Metaphysical  thought,  according  to  Maimonides,  is 
the  ultimate  goal  of  man.  It  bestows  upon  him  the 
greatest  happiness,  and  it  alone  enables  him  to  have 
a  share  in  immortality  and  in  Divine  providence. 
Still  he  warns  the  people  again  and  again  to  keep  aloof 
from  metaphysics.  Meat  and  wine,  to  use  his  own 
simile,  are  excellent  articles  of  food,  but  they  are 
bound  to  have  a  most  injurious  effect  upon  the  infant, 
who  is  unable  to  digest  them.  The  philosopher  is 
allowed,  nay,  is  obliged,  to  search  after  the  principles 
of  religion,  but  the  multitude  is  advised  to  stop  at  the 
comparatively  harmless  question  of  the  reasons  under- 
lying the  ceremonial  laws.  By  thus  taking  into 
account  the  numerous  gradations  in  the  human  in- 
tellect, and  according  to  each  of  them  individual 
treatment,  he  contributed  more  than  any  one  else 
toward  spreading  a  philosophical  conception  of  Juda- 
ism among  the  masses  of  the  Jewish  people. 

These  pedagogical  principles  betray  themselves  also 
in  the  details  of  his  activity.  Maimonides  was  an 
aristocrat  through  and  through, — an  aristocrat,  how- 
ever, who  considers  his  rank  not  a  privilege  but  a 
duty.  He  was  not  only  an  aristocrat  by  virtue  of  his 
birth,  his  family  claiming  descent  from  King  David, 
but  first  and  foremost  also  an  aristocrat  by  virtue  of 
his  intellect.  The  distinction'between  the  hamon  and 
the   yehidim,    the    "many"    and    the    "few,"    or    the 


172  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

masses  and  the  classes,  is  of  most  common  occurrence 
in  his  writings.  His  philosophical  system  pays  but 
little  attention  to  the  masses.  "The  multitude," 
says  Maimonides  in  the  Introduction  to  his  commen- 
tary on  the  Mishnah,  "is  created  to  serve  the  philos- 
opher," to  prepare  for  him  the  necessaries  of  life. 
But  his  practical  sense  made  Maimonides  understand 
that  the  existence  of  a  nation  is  based  upon  the 
masses,  and  that  the  preservation  of  Judaism  depends 
at  least  as  much  on  the  education  of  the  crowd  as  on 
the  philosophical  contemplation  of  the  "select." 
It  is  not  mere  chance,  but  a  logical  inference  from  his 
system  of  thought,  that  the  first  two  standard  works 
of  Maimonides  are  devoted  to  the  instruction  of  the 
masses,  and  that  only  his  third  and  last  book  appeals 
to  the  philosophers.  The  enormous  scientific  activity 
of  Maimonides  is  consciously  directed  towards  this  one 
goal:  the  perpetuation  of  Judaism  by  making  the 
people  understand  and,  in  understanding,  love  Judaism, 
thus  enabling  them  to  fight  for  it  and  suffer  for  it. 
In  this  aspect  Maimonides'  activity  is  eminently 
practical — practical  not  in  the  sense  of  responding  to 
the  petty  interests  of  the  day,  but  rather  in  the  sense 
of  considering  the  needs  of  the  age  and  of  the  gene- 
rations to  come. 

When  still  in  his  early  "twenties,"  Maimonides  saw 
the  whole  scheme  of  his  life  work  before  him.  At  an 
age  when  others  are  in  the  throes  of  their  Sturm  und 
Drang  period,  his  mind  and  character  were  perfectly 
matured  and  settled.  Maimonides  did  not  claim  to  be 
infallible.  On  the  contrary,  he  was  wont  to  claim 
credit  for  his  readiness  to  confess  his  shortcomings 


MOSES  MAIMONIDES  173 

and  modify  his  statements  as  soon  as  he  recognized 
them  to  be  erroneous.  But  it  was  only  in  details 
that  such  modifications  were  ever  necessary.  As  for 
his  general  aims,  they  never  underwent  a  change,  and 
just  as  his  philosophical  views  remained  the  same 
during  all  his  life,  in  spite  of  zealous  and  incessant 
study,  so  his  literary  work  was  the  gradual  unfolding 
of  a  firmly  established  scheme.  In  his  first  work  are 
indicated  the  outlines  of  his  last  work,  and  in  his  last 
work  he  refers  to  his  first:  one  proof  more  for  Mai- 
manides'  incomparably  systematic  trend  of  mind. 

In  the  Introduction  to  his  Commentary  on  the 
Mishnah,  on  which  we  shall  have  to  say  more  presently, 
he  tells  us  that  he  had  written  commentaries  on  the 
Talmud,  and  it  is  worth  while  noticing — he  himself 
directs  our  attention  to  this  fact — that  these  commen- 
taries concerned  themselves  with  the  very  tractates 
which  had  special  application  to  the  practical  life  of 
the  Jew.  However,  his  work  of  commenting  the 
Talmud  remained  unfinished,  and  as  much  of  it  as 
was  finished  has  been  lost.  Both  circumstances  are 
probably  due  to  the  fact  that  Maimonides  laid  no 
special  stress  on  the  propagation  of  the  Talmud.  And 
here  again  we  have  the  real  Maimonides  before  us. 
Maimonides  was  filled  with  the  deepest  reverence  and 
awe  for  the  Talmud  and  its  teachers.  He  speaks  in 
touching  terms  of  their  widsom  and  their  saintliness. 
His  life  was  chiefly  devoted  to  the  study  of  the  Talmud 
and  entirely  governed  by  Talmudical  practice,  and — 
"by  their  fruits  shall  ye  know  them" — his  son,  at  the 
same  time  his  disciple,  was  at  least  as  much  of  a 
Talmudist   as   he  was  of  a   philosopher.     But   Mai- 


174  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

monides'  life  work  was  not  determined  by  his  personal 
likes  and  dislikes,  but  by  the  interests  of  Judaism. 
Looked  at  from  this  standpoint,  the  subtle  and  lengthy 
discussions  of  the  Talmud,  while  an  intellectual 
pleasure  and  a  worthy  object  of  religious  study  for 
the  scholar,  seemed  but  of  little  value  to  the  masses, 
who  needed  practical  information  in  their  everyday 
duties.  These  considerations  decided  Maimonides 
to  turn  to  another  source  of  Jewish  lore,  itself  a 
systematic  condensation  of  the  mental  activity  of 
the  preceding  generations,  and  ranking  in  Jewish 
estimation  as  the  holiest  book  after  the  Bible.  Thus 
Maimonides  undertook  to  interpret  the  Mishnah. 

In  the  course  of  time  the  Mishnah  had  become 
difficult  and  unintelligible.  Its  vocabulary,  its  dic- 
tion and  its  subject-matter  were  quite  alien  to  the 
new  generation.  Besides,  the  editor  of  the  Mishnah 
often  embodied  in  his  code  several  conflicting  opinions, 
without  rendering  a  decision, — and  the  decision  was, 
of  course,  most  important  for  the  religious  practice. 
Maimonides,  therefore,  took  the  task  upon  himself  of 
making  the  Mishnah  again  a  possession  of  the  Jewish 
people. 

His  Commentary  on  the  Mishnah,  the  first  fruit  of 
ten  years  of  indefatigable  labor,  has  remained  unsur- 
passed to  this  very  day.  In  accordance  with  his 
disposition,  Maimonides  prefaces  every  new  tractate 
by  a  comprehensive  introduction,  which  in  every  word 
displays  the  power  of  his  genius.  The  whole  Mishnah 
is  introduced  by  a  lengthy  and  careful  treatise  of 
great  scientific  value,  outlining  in  masterly  fashion 
the  development  of  the  Oral  Law.     The  individual 


MOSES  MAIMONIDES  175 

Mishnahs  are  supplied  with  a  concise,  yet  complete 
interpretation  of  the  text  and  its  contents,  and  the 
decision  which  is  to  be  followed  in  practical  life  is  in- 
variably stated. 

At  the  same  time  Maimonides  successfully  pursued 
another  end.  The  Mishnah  often  refers  to  matters 
of  a  scientific,  moral  or  philosophical  character. 
Whenever  such  an  occasion  presents  itself,  as  soon  as 
— to  use  Maimonides'  own  words — there  is  to  be  per- 
ceived a  mere  odor  of  philosophy,  he  gladly  seizes  the 
opportunity  to  develop,  in  a  most  attractive  and  popu- 
lar, and  yet  profound  and  exhaustive  manner,  the 
elements  of  other  branches  of  learning,  thus  making 
his  commentary  not  only  a  source  of  information  for 
religious  practice,  but  also  a  fountain-head  of  inspira- 
tion for  religious  thought  and  secular  knowledge. 

The  next  literary  work  of  Maimonides  presupposes 
this  one.  He  consciously  takes  up  the  thread  where 
Rabbi  Judah  Hanassi,  the  redactor  of  the  Mishnah, 
had  dropped  it.  Just  as  the  Mishnah  presents  a 
resume  of  the  activity  of  the  generations  preceding  it, 
so  Maimonides  intended  to  condense  in  his  new  work 
the  results  of  his  predecessors  down  to  his  own  day. 
But  the  task  was  now  an  infinitely  greater  one.  In 
the  interval  between  Judah  Hanassi  and  Maimonides 
both  Talmuds,  that  of  Babylonia  and  that  of  Pales- 
tine, had  sprung  up,  accompanied  by  an  enormous  lit- 
erature, which  partly  preceded  and  partly  succeeded 
them.  The  material  which  had  been  piled  up 
during  the  centuries,  without  plan  and  without  sys- 
tem, had  grown  to  unwieldy  dimensions,  but  it 
remained  a  dead  mass.     Only  very  few  were  able  to 


176  PAST  AND  PRESENT 


make  themselves  familiar  with  it.  The  Jews  of  that 
time  were  too  much  occupied  with  practical  life  and 
engaged  in  too  many  interests  to  devote  their  lives 
to  the  study  of  this  literature  with  that  extraordinary 
concentration  and  self-denial  which  afterwards  became 
so  conspicuous  a  feature  in  the  life  of  the  Jews  of 
Poland.  Nay,  even  the  "few"  were  not  able  to 
turn  their  studies  to  good  advantage.  The  material 
was  without  any  unifying  bond.  It  offered  a  mass  of 
information,  but  no  knowledge.  Thus  Maimonides 
conceived  a  gigantic  scheme,  which  meant  no  less 
than  sifting,  arranging  and  illuminating  the  entire 
immense  material  heaped  up  by  all  preceding  gene- 
rations, thereby  rendering  superfluous  the  whole 
literature  before  him. 

A  gross  injustice  is  often  done  to  Maimonides  by 
those  who  charge  him  with  the  intention  of  super- 
seding the  Talmud  altogether.  In  one  of  his  letters 
he  indignantly  refutes  this  charge  by  pointing  to  the 
fact  that  he  himself  was  a  zealous  student  of  the 
Talmud,  and  delivered  lectures  on  Talmudic  sub- 
jects. Maimonides  looked  upon  the  Talmud  as  a 
most  important  and  most  meritorious  object  of  study 
— but  only  for  scholars.  He  could  not  fail  to  realize 
that  the  people  at  large  were  not  scholars  and  were 
not  in  a  position  to  devote  their  whole  life  to  study 
It  was  then  for  the  mass  of  the  people  alone  that 
he  intended  to  supersede  the  Talmud  by  making  a 
comprehensive  extract  from  it. 

In  our  times — he  says  in  his  introduction  to  the  work  of 
which  we  are  now  speaking — disasters  continually  follow 
one  another.  The  need  of  the  moment  sets  aside  every 
other  consideration.     The  wisdom  of  our  wise  men  is  lost, 


MAIMONIDES  AS  AN  EXEGETE  177 


and  the  learning  of  our  learned  men  is  hidden.  Therefore 
all  the  interpretations,  codes  and  responsa,  which  the  Geonim 
composed,  and  which  they  thought  were  easy  of  understand- 
ing, have  become  unintelligible  in  our  days,  and  there  are 
but  few  who  are  able  to  understand  them  properly.  As  to 
the  Talmuds  themselves,  both  the  Babylonian  and  the 
Palestinian,  and  the  other  Talmudic  literature,  I  have  no 
need  to  say  that  they  require  wide  knowledge  and  great 
intelligence,  and  that  it  takes  a  long  time  before  anyone  can 
find  out  the  right  way  concerning  all  the  things  permitted 
and  forbidden,  and  concerning  all  the  other  commandments 
of  the  Law. 

On  account  of  this,  I,  Moses,  the  son  of  Maimon,  the 
Spaniard,  have  girded  my  loins  and  put  my  trust  in  the 
Lord — blessed  be  He —  and  studied  all  these  works  and 
made  up  my  mind  to  collect  the  results  derived  from  them, 
bearing  on  the  regulations  concerning  things  forbidden  or 
permitted,  pure  or  impure,  and  all  the  other  commandments 
of  the  Torah — expounding  them  all  in  precise  language  and 
in  a  concise  manner,  so  that  the  entire  oral  law  may  be 
made  accessible  to  everyone,  without  any  arguments  or 
counter-arguments,  but  in  clear  and  unmistakable  terms,  in 
entire  accord  with  the  decision  which  may  be  deduced  from 
all  the  treatises  and  interpretations  existing  since  the  time 
of  Rabbi  Judah  Hanassi,  the  compiler  of  the  Mishnah, 
until  the  present  day.  In  short,  my  intention  is  that  no 
man  shall  have  any  need  to  resort  to  any  other  book  on 
any  point  of  Jewish  law.  .  .  .  For  this  reason  I  called 
the  name  of  this  work  Mishne  Torah,  "the  second  Torah," 
for  all  that  a  man  has  to  do  is  to  read  first  the  Written  Law 
(the  Bible)  and  follow  it  up  by  this  work,  and  he  will  know 
the  entire  Oral  Law,  without  the  need  of  reading  any  other 
book  between  them. 

The  significance  of  this  gigantic  work  can  hardly 
be  overestimated.  This  is  not  the  place  nor  is  it  my 
function  to  give  an  elaborate  estimate  of  Maimonides' 
great  code.     Suffice  it  to  say  that  the  "Second  Law" 


178  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

of  Maimonides  is  considered  by  many  competent 
critics  the  greatest  work  in  Jewish  literature  after 
the  Bible.  The  difference  between  his  code  and  the 
Talmud  is  the  same  as  between  a  warehouse  of  ac- 
cumulated materials  and  a  magnificent  palace.  The 
warehouse  no  doubt  contains  a  vast  amount  of 
valuable  stuff;  one  may  find  there  silver  and  gold, 
and  very  often  even  jewels.  But  all  these  treasures 
make  the  proper  impression  only  when  arranged  in 
order  and  co-ordinated  with  one  another.  The  palace 
of  Maimonides  betrays  the  marvelous  architect. 
The  tremendous  edifice  is,  as  it  were,  of  one  cast. 
There  is  a  ravishing  harmony  in  all  its  parts.  The 
foundation  is  made  up  of  the  basic  conceptions  of  the 
Aristotelian  system  of  thought,  and  the  top  loses 
itself  in  the  lofty  clouds  of  the  Messianic  ideal,  pro- 
claiming a  time  when  the  "knowledge  of  the  Lord 
shall  fill  the  earth,  as  the  waters  cover  the  sea." 

With  the  completion  of  his  legal  code  Maimonides 
had  discharged  his  duty  toward  the  "many."  They 
were  now  sufficiently  provided  for.  They  had  been 
supplied  with  a  criterion  for  their  religious  practice 
and  a  content  for  their  religious  thought.  Equipped 
with  the  Bible  and  the  Mishne  Torah,  the  Jewish 
people  could  confidently  continue  its  wanderings  and 
face  any  persecution  that  might  be  approaching. 
Now  there  remained  the  less  important,  yet  a  most 
sublime  and  most  delicate  duty  toward  the  "few." 
They  were  really  yehidim,  "single  ones,"  "one  out  of 
a  city,  and  two  out  of  a  tribe,"  but  Maimonides,  the 
aristocrat,  assures  us  that  he  cares  more  for  one  of 
these  "few"  than  "for  ten  thousand  fools."     These 


MOSES  MAIMONIDES  179 

yehidim  devoted  their  lives  to  learning.  They  were 
familiar  with  Jewish  culture,  possessing  at  the  same 
time  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  science  and  philso- 
ophy  of  the  age.  These  different  elements  in  their 
make-up  were  in  constant  struggle  with  one  another. 
There  was  a  wide  breach  in  the  souls  of  these  men. 
They  felt  dissatisfied.  They  experienced  spiritual 
torture,  constantly  wavering,  as  they  did,  between  the 
two  poles  represented  by  the  abstract  Aristotelian 
definition  of  God  as  self-thinking,  on  the  one  hand, 
and  by  the  anthropomorphistic  narratives  and  con- 
crete as  well  as  minute  precepts  of  Bible  and  Talmud, 
on  the  other.  Many  an  attempt  had  been  made 
to  reconcile  the  two  spheres  of  thought,  but  they  had 
not  proved  successful.  Either  Aristotle  or  Judaism 
got  the  worst  of  it.  This  task  could  be  satisfactorily 
performed — so  far  as  it  could  be  performed  at  all — 
only  by  one  who,  besides  possessing  an  incomparable 
power  of  synthesis,  mastered  in  an  equally  incom- 
parable manner  both  Greek  thought  and  the  content 
of  Judaism. 

This  task  was  undertaken  and  finished  by  Mai- 
monides  in  his  third  magnus  opus,  in  his  Moreh 
Nebukhim,  "The  Guide  of  the  Perplexed,"  a  book 
which  marks  an  epoch  not  only  in  the  history  of 
Jewish  thought,  but  also  in  that  of  the  general 
thought  of  the  Middle  Ages.  The  Moreh  is  written 
in  the  form  of  letters  addressed  to  his  pupil  Joseph  ibn 
Aknin.  Maimonides  proceeds  with  the  utmost  de- 
liberation and  caution.  He  describes  his  long  hesi- 
tation before  determining  on  writing  this  book.  He 
was   not    afraid   of   the   harm   he   might   personally 


180  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

suffer  from  the  attacks  of  the  multitude,  which  were 
likely  to  come,  and  actually  did  come.  His  fear 
was  rather  that  the  multitude  might  suffer  harm  in 
its  faith  as  a  result  of  this  book.  He,  therefore,  takes 
every  possible  precaution  to  keep  the  masses  away 
from  it.  He  warns  his  pupil  against  lending  his  copy 
of  the  Moreh  to  anyone.  He  lays  down  a  long  string 
of  conditions  which  alone  qualify  one  to  read  it.  He 
makes  the  greatest  efforts  to  be  unintelligible,  to 
speak  in  hints  and  allusions, — though  the  logical  mind 
of  Maimonides  was  stronger  than  his  intention,  and 
the  lucidity  of  his  work  is  paralleled  only  by  its 
depth. 

The  Moreh  constitutes,  as  was  stated  above,  the 
attempt  to  effect  a  reconciliation  between  the  ideas 
of  Aristotle  and  the  doctrines  of  Judaism.  Aristotle 
was  for  Maimonides  the  incarnation  of  human  thought. 
He  declares  him  to  be  "the  ultimate  station  attainable 
by  the  intelligence  of  man."  He  often  speaks  of  him 
as  "the  highest  of  those  who  ever  philosophized," 
and  calls  him  the  "chief  of  the  philosophers."  He 
follows  him  with  absolute  confidence,  without  any 
mental  reservation.  Aristotle  was  "the  Philosopher" 
to  that  entire  age.  But  more  than  to  any  one  else 
he  was  so  to  Maimonides.  who  in  his  whole  intellectual 
make-up  resembled  so  strikingly  the  Stagirite,  and 
may  properly  be  called  the  Jewish  Aristotle. 

In  order  to  show  the  extent  and  the  importance  of 
the  problem  which  confronted  Maimonides  in  his 
Moreh,  let  me  sketch  in  a  few  rough  strokes  the  lead- 
ing thoughts  of  Aristotle,  as  they  were  subsequently 
modified  bv  the  ideas  of  the  neo-Platonists,  by  the 


MOSES  MAIMONIDES  181 

interpretations  of  the  Arabic  philosophers,  and  by 
the  original  and  independent  formulation  of  Mai- 
monides  himself. 

The  underlying  idea  of  the  whole  Aristotelian  sys- 
tem is  the  conception  of  Matter  and  Form,  or,  trans- 
lated into  corresponding  modern  terms,  of  Matter 
and  Mind.  Matter  is  only  possibility,  or  potentiality; 
Mind  is  actuality.  The  constantly  shifting  com- 
binations of  Matter  and  Mind  constitute  the  move- 
ment, and  thereby  the  process,  of  the  world.  Every 
movement  has  a  cause;  this  cause  another  cause, 
and  so  on  until  we  at  last  arrive  at  the  First  Cause, 
at  the  Cause  of  Causes — at  God.  God  is  pure  mind, 
pure  actuality.  He  is  the  cause  of  movement;  yet, 
having  no  cause,  is  Himself  unmoved:  the  unmoved 
Mover.  God  as  pure  mind  can  exercise  only  one 
activity:  thinking.  Being  the  perfect  mind,  He  can 
think  only  the  perfect  object:  Himself.  Thus  God 
becomes  personified  Self-Thinking. 

The  nature  of  God  having  been  defined  in  this 
manner,  the  question  is  bound  to  arise  as  to  the  rela- 
tion of  this  abstract  God  to  the  world  of  matter  with 
all  its  numberless  phenomena.  Aristotle  simply  sets 
aside  this  question  by  maintaining  the  co-existence 
of  the  world  with  God,  in  other  words,  the  eternity  of 
the  world.  Looked  at  from  this  point  of  view,  God 
ceases  to  be  the  Creator,  of  even  the  Ruler,  of  the 
world,  and  becomes  an  impersonal,  abstract  principle, 
"a  pale  cast  of  thought." 

No  positive  religion  with  its  beliefs  and  command- 
ments can  start  from  such  a  conception.  Maimonides 
clearly  realizes  that  the  acceptance  of  the  eternity 


182  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

of  the  world  is  identical  with  the  destruction  of  all 
positive  religion.  Nevertheless,  he  proudly  declines 
to  take  refuge  in  any  glittering  philosophic  generalities. 
In  a  cool  and  unbiased  manner  he  examines  closely 
the  foundations  of  this  Aristotelian  belief.  He  proves 
that  this  hypothesis  of  Aristotle  was  meant  by 
Aristotle  himself  to  be  taken  as  no  more  than  an 
hypothesis,  and  shows  further,  in  a  way  that  vividly 
reminds  us  of  Kant,  that  there  can  never  be  any 
certainty  about  this  question,  the  whole  problem 
being,  as  Kant  would  say,  transcendental,  i.  e.,  lying 
beyond  the  limits  of  the  human  understanding. 
Wherever  human  reason  is  incompetent  the  philos- 
opher is  entitled — and  here  again  Maimonides  is  in 
agreement  with  Kant — to  follow  the  .teachings  of 
religion.  The  world  once  created,  then  God  is  a 
Creator,  a  Ruler, — no  longer  a  faint,  abstract  principle, 
but  a  personal  being,  full  of  reality.  Thus  the 
foundation  of  positive  religion  is  found  to  rest  upon 
philosophical  probability,  but  a  probability,  which 
by  inner  religious  certitude, — Kant  would  say  by 
Practical  Reason , — is  raised  to  the  level  of  an  un- 
doubted belief. 

But  how  is  the  relation  between  God,  the  pure 
Mind,  and  the  world  of  Matter  to  be  conceived  in 
detail?  The  reply  to  this  question  presupposes 
the  cosmological  system  of  Aristotle,  with  the  peculiar 
modifications  and  additions  of  the  later  philosophers. 
The  world,  according  to  Aristotle,  and,  of  course, 
according  to  Maimonides,  consists  of  two  sharply 
marked  realms:  of  the  world  beneath  the  moon,  the 
so-called  sublunar  world,  and   the  world  above  the 


MOSES  MAIMONIDES  183 

moon,  the  world  of  the  stars,  or  the  spheres.  The 
sublunar  world  is  made  up  of  the  four  elements  and  is 
therefore  subject  to  rise  and  decay ;  the  spheres,  on  the 
other  hand,  consist  of  ether,  and  are  eternal.  The 
spheres  are  living  beings,  endowed  with  an  intelligence, 
surpassing  by  far  that  of  man.  Every  sphere  has  its 
own  ruler,  a  Separate  Intelligence,  i.  e.,  an  intelligence 
which  is  separated  from  matter  and  consists  of  pure 
mind.  The  contemplation  of  God,  the  purest  mind, 
and  the  desire  to  reach  him  sets  the  spheres  in  motion. 
This  motion  being  circular,  the  spheres  have  to  move 
in  all  eternity,  without  being  able  to  reach  the  object 
of  their  desire.  The  sublunar  world,  or  the  earth,  is 
ruled  by  the  Active  Intellect,  i.  e.,  that  Separate 
Intelligence  which  is  attached  to  the  moon  sphere. 
Through  the  instrumentality  of  the  Active  Intellect 
movement  is  produced  in  this  world,  and  potentiality 
developed  into  actuality. 

Everything  in  the  sublunar  world  is  perishable,  in- 
cluding man.  He  falls  asunder  into  his  four  elements. 
But,  in  distinction  from  all  other  beings,  he  is  endowed 
with  mentality  which  is  implanted  in  him  as  a  mere 
disposition,  but  by  human  effort  this  disposition  can 
be  developed  into  the  Acquired  Intellect.  By  means 
of  the  Acquired  Intellect  man  is  connected  with  the 
Active  Intellect  of  the  moon  sphere  and,  through 
the  intercession  of  the  latter,  with  the  Divine  Being. 
It  thus  depends  upon  man  himself  and  upon  his  en- 
deavor to  develop  his  mind  whether  and  to  what 
extent  he  may  be  connected  with  God,  whether  and 
to  what  extent  he  may  share  in  Divine  Providence 
and  Immortality.     Development  of  the  mind  means, 


184  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

of  course,  nothing  else  than  thinking,  thinking  of  the 
Highest,  of  God;  in  other  words,  metaphysics.  In 
this  way  metaphysics  becomes  the  final  destiny  of 
mankind. 

While  thinking  must  be  regarded  as  the  ultimate 
goal  of  mankind,  it  nevertheless  requires  many  lower 
activities  for  its  realization.  It  requires,  first, 
morality,  consisting  in  the  mesotes,  the  "golden  mean," 
the  balance  between  two  extremes;  it  requires,  more- 
over, the  satisfaction  of  the  needs  of  the  body,  which 
again  presupposes  a  social  order.  Only  after  fulfilling 
these  conditions  man  is  able  to  devote  himself  to 
thinking,  to  metaphysics.  In  this  manner  morality 
and  the  social  order  are  justified  as  a  substructure  for 
philosophy. 

Thus  far  the  system  of  Aristotle  in  its  general  out- 
lines. Even  from  this  crude  sketch  it  becomes 
evident  that  the  ideas  of  Aristotle  are  different  from 
the  teachings  of  the  Bible,  with  its  vivid  narratives 
and  positive  commandments.  A  reconciliation  seems 
impossible. 

Still  Maimonides  managed  to  effect  this  apparently 
impossible  synthesis.  He  was  charged  with  hy- 
pocrisy. But  those  who  make  this  charge  show  a 
complete  failure  to  comprehend  either  the  convictions 
of  Maimonides  or  the  ideas  of  his  age.  Maimonides 
was  perfectly  honest  and  consistent  in  trying  to  bring 
about  this  reconciliation.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  was 
entirely  impossible  for  him  to  do  otherwise.  For 
thoroughly  convinced  as  he  was  of  the  truth  of  the 
Aristotelian  system,  he  was  just  as  much,  and  even 
more  so,  convinced  of  the  truth  of  the  teachings  of 


MOSES  MAIMONIDES  185 

Moses.  Maimonides  did  not  for  a  single  moment 
in  his  whole  life  doubt  the  Divine  origin  of  the 
Torah.  In  the  work  of  his  early  youth,  in  the  Com- 
mentary on  the  Mishnah,  he  formulates  this  belief 
with  the  utmost  emphasis. 

There   is   no   difference — he    says1,    with    regard    to    the 
question  of  the  Divine  origin  of  the  Pentateuch — between 
the  verses:  "And  the  sons  of  Ham  are  Cush,  and  Mizraim, 
and  Phut,  and  Canaan,"  or  "And  the  name  of  his  wife  was 
Mehetabel,    the    daughter    of    Matred,"    and    the    verses: 
"I  am  the  Lord  thy  God  which  have  brought  thee  out  of 
the  Land  of  Egypt,"  or  "Hear,  O  Israel,  the  Lord  our  God, 
The  Lord  is  One." 
In  our  own  days  this  confession  may  sound  sur- 
prising in  the  mouth  of  a  man  who  declares  Reason 
to  be  the  judge  of  dogmas.     But  we  must  try  to 
understand  Maimonides  from  an  historical  point  of 
view.     No  Jew  prior  to  Maimonides,  not  even  during 
the  Jewish-Arabic  period,  in  spite  of  its  many  thinkers, 
ever  denied  the  Divine  origin  of  the  Pentateuch,  or 
doubted  the  correctness  of  the  facts  reported  by  it. 
The   philosopher   Bahya  Ibn    Pakuda,   who   lived   a 
century  before  Maimonides,  mentions  a  class  of  Jews 
who  do  not  accept  the  Torah,  but  still  "are  unable  to 
refute  the  wonders  and  deny  the  miracles  performed  by 
the  prophets,  on  account  of  their  wide  publicity."2 
Similarly,   the  heathen  king  of  the  Khazars,  in   the 
philosophical    dialogue    by    Bahya's    contemporary, 
Judah  Halevi,  after  having  heard  from  his  opponent 
the  biblical  story  of  the  Exodus,  exclaims  enthusiastic- 
ally: 

1  Sanhedrin,  Perek  Helek.     See  later  p.  196. 

2  Hoboth  Halebaboth  ii,  4. 


186  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

This  is  surely  a  Divine  miracle,  and  all  the  ceremonies 
connected  with  it  have  to  be  performed,  for  there  can  be 
no  question  of  witchcraft,  or  deceit,  or  imagination.  Granted 
that  the  Red  Sea  before  their  eyes,  its  being  split  and  their 
passage  through  it  was  a  product  of  the  imagination,  how 
could  their  deliverance  from  slavery,  the  death  of  their 
oppressors  and  the  fact  of  having  appropriated  their  garments 
and  keeping  possession  of  their  money — how  could  all  this 
be  taken  as  a  product  of  the  imagination.  Such  can  only 
be  the  attitude  of  a  stubborn  skeptic.1 

The  modern  conception  of  legend  was  entirely 
wanting.  Literary  criticism  was  a  thing  unknown. 
But  more  than  by  the  absence  of  negative  skepticism 
was  the  belief  in  the  Torah  upheld  by  positive  in- 
fluences. The  conviction  of  the  Divine  origin  of  the 
Torah  was  not  coldly  abstracted  from  consumptive 
catechisms;  it  impressed  itself  upon  the  mind  of  the 
Jew  as  the  result  of  continuous  study  and  the  incessant 
practice  of  the  Law.  The  Book  of  the  Law,  to 
paraphrase  the  biblical  words  (Joshua  I,  8),  never 
departed  out  of  his  mouth,  but  he  meditated  therein 
day  and  night  that  he  might  observe  to  do  according 
to  all  that  is  written  therein.  Under  these  circum- 
stances even  the  "chief  of  the  philosophers"  was 
powerless  to  shake  the  psychological  foundations  of 
Jewish  belief.  The  doctrines  of  Moses  representing 
no  less  absolute  truth  than  that  of  Aristotle,  the 
deduction,  according  to  the  mathematical  formula: 
a  =  b,  b  =  c,  hence  a  =  c,  naturally  was  that  they 
were  identical. 

It  is  evident  that  this  identity  could  not  be  estab- 
lished except  by  way  of  allegorical  interpretation. 
Aristotle  was   too  scientific  and   too  exact   to  bear 

1  Kusari,  i,  84. 


MOSES  MAIMONIDES  187 

allegorization.     Hence  the  one  to  suffer  could  only  be 
the  Bible. 

But  why  does  not  Moses  utter  his  truths  as 
plainly  as  Aristotle?  The  answer  is  most  ingenious 
and  entirely  convincing  to  that  age.  Man  creates 
God  in  his  own  image.  Maimonides,  the  great 
pedagogue  who  endeavors  to  keep  his  philosophical 
views  from  the  immature  multitude,  discovers  the 
same  pedagogic  disposition  in  Moses.  The  Bible  does 
not,  like  the  Organon  of  Aristotle,  address  itself  to  a 
limited  number  of  highly  cultivated  philosophers. 
The  Bible  is  a  popular  book.  It  makes  its  appeal  to 
the  entire  people  and  to  all  classes.  "Gather  the 
people  together,"  says  God  to  Moses,  "men,  women 
and  children  .  .  .  that  they  may  hear  ...  all  the 
words  of  this  Law"  (Deuteronomy  xxxi,  12).  The 
Bible  speaks  at  one  and  the  same  time  to  the  pro- 
found thinker  and  to  the  unsophisticated  child.  Had 
the  Torah  expressed  its  metaphysical  truths  in  clear, 
plain  language,  they  would  not  only  have  remained 
entirely  unintelligible  to  the  mass  of  the  people,  but,  by 
being  misunderstood,  they  would  in  addition  have 
wrought  confusion  and  mischief.  For  this  reason 
the  Torah  preferred  to  clothe  its  doctrines  in  the  garb 
of  tales  and  allegories,  which,  taken  by  the  "many" 
in  a  literal  sense,  and  by  the  "few"  in  an  allegorical 
sense,  exercised  over  both  of  them  a  religious  in- 
fluence, which  may  differ  in  degree,  but  is  equally 
beneficial.  This  example  of  a  two-fold  meaning 
which  was  set  by  Moses  was  followed  by  the  prophets 
and  the  other  biblical  writers,  and  later  on  also  by  the 
sages  of  Talmud  and  Midrash,  whose  words,  as  Mai- 
monides puts  it,  "are  like  a  few  bits  of  core  enveloped 


188  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

by  numerous  husks,  so  that  sometimes  the  people 
become  absorbed  in  the  husks  and  think  that  there 
is  no  core  in  them  at  all."1 

The  method  by  which  Maimonides  discovers  the 
system  of  Aristotle  in  the  Torah  excites  our  utmost 
admiration.  Here  his  synthetic  genius  celebrates  its 
greatest  triumphs.  Many  a  time  we  must  summon 
all  our  modern  skepticism  to  our  aid  in  order  to 
escape  the  net  of  allegorical  explanation  so  skilfully 
laid  by  the  hand  of  a  master.  Of  course,  in  many 
cases,  the  interpretations  of  Maimonides  impress  us 
as  artificial  and  affected.  Maimonides  did  not  write 
for  readers  of  the  twentieth  century,  but  for  the 
Jews  of  the  twelfth  century.  And  for  them,  with  a 
spiritual  life  akin  to  his  own,  with  the  same  opinions, 
beliefs  and  associations,  the  allegorical  interpretation 
of  Maimonides  was  a  revelation — a  revelation  bringing 
harmony  to  their  minds  and  peace  to  their  souls. 
*     *     * 

Mi-Moshe  we- ad  Moshe  lo  kom  ke-Moshe — "From 
Moses  till  Moses  there  was  none  like  Moses."  Just  as 
Moshe  ben  Amram  so  did  Moshe  ben  Maimon  extend 
his  gigantic  and  beneficent  activity  to  all  classes  of 
his  people.  The  blessings  of  his  work  poured  down 
on  the  vast  plains  and  the  lonely  summits.  The 
loftiest  thinker  looked  up  to  Maimonides  with  the 
same  gratitude  and  reverence  as  the  simplest  man 
of  the  mass.  For  this  alone  Maimonides  deserves  im- 
mortality— 

Denn  wer  den  Besten  seiner  Zeit  genug  getan, 

Der  hat  gelebt  fuer  alle  Zeiten. 

1  Moreh  i,  71. 


MOSES  MAIMONIDES  189 

But  man  is  selfish.  He  measures  the  grandest 
phenomena  of  the  past  by  the  petty  yardstick  of  the 
present.  It  is  but  in  accordance  with  human  nature 
that  we  finally  ask,  what  is  Maimonides  to  our  own 
generation?  The  reply  sounds  sad  in  the  extreme. 
The  life  work  of  Maimonides  seems  to  be  lost.  Mai- 
monides, the  Halakist,  intended  to  supersede  Tal- 
mudic  literature  by  his  more  efficient  works,  the 
Commentary  on  the  Mishnah  and  his  Mishne  Tor  ah. 
The  first  part  has  been  successfully  achieved  without 
the  co-operation  of  Maimonides.  The  modern  Jew 
knows  nothing  of  the  Talmud,  but  its  substitutes  are 
hardly  better  known.  And  even  in  the  countries 
where  the  Talmud  is  still  a  power  in  life,  the  Halakic 
activity  of  Maimonides  has  brought  forth  the  reverse 
of  what  it  had  aimed  at.  Maimonides  intended  to 
set  aside  by  his  works  all  preceding  discussions  which 
were  fruitless,  though  brilliant.  But  he  accomplished 
the  very  opposite :  his  books  have  called  forth  a  new 
enormous  literature  of  mental  equilibristics  which 
would  probably  have  thrown  him  into  despair. 

As  for  the  philosopher  Maimonides,  need  I  point 
out  that  the  downfall  of  Aristotle  involves  the  down- 
fall of  Maimonides?  The  stars  of  modern  astronomy 
have  grown  infinitely  in  size,  but  the  spectral  analysis 
has  torn  their  souls  out  of  them.  The  death  of  the 
stars  has  caused  the  death  of  the  Separate  Intelli- 
gences and  of  the  Active  Intellect  which  connects  the 
mind  of  man  with  God.  Thus  the  tremendous 
edifice  of  Maimonidian  thought  seems  but  one  mag- 
nificent ruin. 

Yet,  have  you  ever  heard  of  the  temple  of  the 
Sun-god  in  Palmyra?     This  temple  was  the  greatest 


190  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

building  of  its  time,  and  even  in  its  ruins  it  is  so  enor- 
mous that  one  of  its  corners  has  afforded  room  for  a 
little  settlement  to  establish  itself.  In  the  ruins 
of  Maimonides'  edifice  there  are  many  corners  which 
might  grant  shelter  and  rest  to  the  "Perplexed"  of  our 
age.  I  am  firmly  convinced  that  a  thorough  study 
of  Maimonides'  writings  would  reveal  an  abundance 
of  thought  which,  after  some  transformation  and  adap- 
tation, might  become  of  great  value  even  for  our  own 
modern  times. 

But  far  more  than  in  its  individual  phases  Mai- 
monides' activity  as  a  whole  may  serve  us  as  a  lesson 
of  primary  importance.  The  problem  that  faced  Mai- 
monides— the  reconciliation  of  Judaism  with  non- 
Jewish  culture — renews  itself  with  every  generation, 
and  never  more  persistently  than  today  when  the 
visible  barriers  between  the  Jews  and  the  non-Jewish 
environment  have  been  raised.  The  example  of 
Maimonides  teaches  us  that  Judaism  has  nothing  to 
fear  from  other  cultures.  The  ideas  of  the  twentieth 
century  are  not  more  opposed  to  the  Judaism  of 
today  than  the  Aristotelian  conceptions  were  to  the 
Judaism  of  the  twelfth  century.  Still  they  were  ac- 
cepted and  absorbed  by  the  doctrine  of  Judaism. 

The  example  of  Maimonides  shows  us,  moreover, 
the  means  by  which  this  adaptation  might  be  ac- 
complished. A  real,  a  lasting,  synthesis  between 
modern  culture  and  Judaism  can  be  brought  about 
only  by  one  who  is  intimately  familiar  with  the  con- 
tent of  Judaism.  Philo  of  Alexandria,  twelve  cen- 
turies before  Maimonides,  had  undertaken  the  same 
task,  and  had  tried  to  solve  it  by  precisely  the  same 


MOSES  MAIMONIDES  191 

means, — by  allegorical  interpretation.  Still,  as  far  as 
the  Jewish  people  are  concerned,  he  utterly  failed: 
his  influence  can  only  be  traced  in  the  doctrine  of 
the  Church,  while  Maimonides  is  revered  by  the 
Jews  as  a  teacher  and  a  saint.  Maimonides  mastered 
all  the  branches  of  Jewish  knowledge  and  was  intimate- 
ly associated  with  all  the  phases  of  Jewish  life,  whereas 
Philo  was  a  stranger  in  the  field  of  Judaism,  and  could 
not  even  read  the  Bible  in  the  original. 

The  reconciliation  of  Judaism  with  non-Jewish  cul- 
ture may  be  compared  to  a  surgical  operation.  But 
an  operation  requires  a  most  intimate  knowledge  of 
anatomy.  It  cannot  be  performed  by  a  quack,  who 
would  let  his  patient  bleed  to  death. 

Moreover,  the  operating  surgeon  must  enjoy  the 
complete  confidence  of  the  patient.  He  must  en- 
deavor to  strengthen  the  patient's  heart  and  raise 
his  spirits  to  enable  him  to  stand  the  operation  with 
as  little  injury  as  possible.  Let  us,  therefore,  follow 
the  example  of  the  man  whose  seven  hundredth  an- 
niversary we  are  celebrating  to-night.  Let  us  first 
make  our  people  know  Judaism,  let  us  make  them 
love  Judaism — and  with  a  clear  mind  and  a  strong 
heart  the  Jewish  nation  can  confidently  await  the 
future. 


XI 
MAIMONIDES  AS  AN  EXEGETE* 

THE  title  of  this  lecture,  which  has  been  chosen 
in  conformity  with  those  of  the  preceding 
lectures  on  "Types  of  Rabbinical  Exegesis,"  conveys 
but  inadequately  the  nature  and  significance  of  the 
task  that  confronts  us  today.  In  modern  times 
biblical  exegesis  has  become  a  special  department  of 
learning,  which  has  its  official  representatives  at 
almost  every  college  and  university.  To  speak  of  a 
man  as  an  exegete  is  nowadays  no  more  than  to  speak 
of  a  man  as  a  mathematician  or  an  archeologist,  that 
is,  to  touch  only  the  circumference  of  a  man's  per- 
sonality. But  in  olden  times,  when  the  Bible  was  the 
Bible,  the  Book,  regulating  the  spiritual  and  practical 
life  of  mankind — was,  in  fact,  more  than  a  book,  was 
Life  itself, — in  olden  times  to  speak  of  a  man  as  an 
exegete  was  to  penetrate  into  the  very  centre  of  his 
personality,  to  reveal  the  spring  from  which  both  his 
ideas  and  actions  drew  their  origin.  Therefore,  when 
we  speak  of  Maimonides  as  an  exegete,  it  is  not  the 
same,  as  were  we  to  speak  of  Maimonides  as  a 
rabbinical  authority,  as  an  astronomer,  as  a  physician, 
or  even  as  a  philosopher.     To  speak  of  Maimonides 


*Lecture  delivered  at  the  Summer  Meeting  of  the  University 
Extension  Movement  at  Cambridge  (England),  in  a  series  of 
lectures  on  "Types  of  Rabbinical  Exegesis,"  on  August  14,  1906. 
Published  first  in  the  Jewish  Literary  Annual,  London,  1907. 


194  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

as  an  exegete  is  to  indicate  the  cornerstone  which 
bears  the  gigantic  edifice  of  his  system  of  thought. 

This  circumstance  becomes  the  more  remarkable, 
when  we  bear  in  mind  two  facts  which  seemingly 
contradict  each  other.  Maimonides,  whom  I  have 
to  present  to  you  as  an  exegete,  never  wrote  a  com- 
mentary on  a  biblical  book.  The  assumption  that  he 
composed  a  commentary  on  the  Five  Books  of  Moses 
is  false  and  based  on  a  misunderstanding.  In  fact, 
he  incidentally  speaks  with  thinly  veiled  contempt  of 
the  "hapless  commentators  who  look  upon  the  ex- 
planation of  words  as  the  consummation  of  wisdom" 
(Moreh  ii,  29).  And  yet  the  same  Maimonides  regards 
his  ripest  and  greatest  work,  "the  Guide  of  the  Per- 
plexed," as  a  primarily  exegetical  achievement.  In  a 
passage  of  his  "Guide"  he  expressly  declares  that  the 
object  of  this  book  is  not  philosophy,  but  exegesis. 

This  contradiction  disappears,  however,  when  we 
consider  Maimonides'  general  conception  of  the  Bible. 
For,  radically  different  as  Maimonides  may  have  been 
from  a  man,  let  us  say,  like  Rashi — the  difference 
between  a  consummate  rationalist  and  an  unso- 
phisticated believer — to  Maimonides  as  well  as  to 
Rashi  the  Divine  origin  of  Scripture  was  an  axiom 
which  needed  no  demonstration.  It  may  appear 
strange  that  a  man  like  Maimonides,  who  was  perhaps 
the  most  analytical  mind  of  the  Middle  Ages,  who  con- 
sidered it  necessary  to  prove  elaborately  the  existence 
of  God,  who  interpreted  prophecy  as  a  psychological 
phenomenon,  who  held  the  most  advanced  views  on 
the  immortality  of  the  soul,  should  never  have  enter- 
tained any  doubt  regarding  the  Divine  authority  of 
the  Bible.     There  have  been  people  who  have  ques- 


MAIMON'IDES  AS  AN  EXEGETE  195 

tioned  Maimonides'  sincerity  on  this  point.  But 
those  who  cast  the  shadow  of  an  aspersion  on  Mai- 
monides as  a  personality  merely  prove  that  they 
have  utterly  failed  to  understand  him,  for  it  is  one  of 
the  most  outstanding  and  most  attractive  features  of 
Maimonides  that  his  character  is  in  no  way  inferior 
to  his  intellect.  To  be  sure,  this  credulity  may  appear 
strange — but  it  only  does  so  when  modern  standards 
are  applied  to  phenomena  of  the  past.  However 
strange  it  may  seem,  it  is  yet  a  fact,  which  no  student 
of  history  can  deny,  that  the  authority  of  the  Bible 
was  never  questioned  during  the  Middle  Ages,  in 
spite  of  the  many  skeptical  minds  which  that  age 
produced.  Even  Hivi  ha-Balkhi,  practically  the  only 
medieval  Bible  critic  whose  objections  have  come 
down  to  us,  seems  merely  to  have  endeavored  to 
rationalize  the  statements  of  the  Bible,  but  he  does 
not  appear  to  have  doubted  the  truth  of  those  state- 
ments themselves.  On  the  other  hand,  when  we  read 
the  Kusari,  the  philosophical  standard  work  of 
Judah  Halevi,  who  was  as  great  a  thinker  as  he  was 
a  poet,  we  find  that  the  heathen  king  of  the  Khazars, 
in  spite  of  his  skeptical  turn  of  mind,  is  converted  to 
Judaism  and  becomes  fully  convinced  of  its  truth, 
when  he  is  told  by  the  Jewish  sage  that  the  religion  of 
Judaism,  according  to  the  Biblical  account,  was  re- 
vealed before  a  multitude  of  six  hundred  thousand 
people.  To  doubt  this  account  itself  never  occurred 
to  the  King  of  the  Khazars,  any  more  than  it  did  to 
the  whole  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

As  for  Maimonides  himself,  the  strongest  possible 
emphasis  is  laid  by  him  on  this  point.  He  counts  the 
belief  in  the  Divine  origin  of  the  Bible  among  the  fund- 


196  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

amental  Articles  of  Faith  which,  as  is  known,  he  was 
the  first  to  lay  down,  and  he  formulates  it  in  a  man- 
ner which  leaves  no  doubt  whatsoever  as  to  his  inner- 
most conviction. 

The  Eighth  Article  of  Faith — quoth  Maimonides1 — is  the 
belief  that  the  whole  of  the  Pentateuch  which  is  now  in  our 
hands  was  revealed  to  us  through  Moses,  that  it  is  in  its 
totality  the  word  of  God,  and  that  Moses  only  acted  as  a 
copyist  to  whom  it  was  dictated.  .  .  .  There  is  no  differ- 
ence between  the  verse  "and  the  sons  of  Ham  are  Cush,  and 
Mizraim,  and  Phut,  and  Canaan"  (Gen.  x.  6),  or  the  verse 
"and  the  name  of  his  wife  was  Mehetabel,  the  daughter  of 
Matred"  (Gen.  xxxvi,  39),  and  the  verses  "I  am  the  Lord 
Thy  God,  which  have  brought  thee  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt," 
and  "Hear,  O  Israel,  the  Lord  our  God,  the  Lord  is  One" — 
every  portion  of  it  is  the  word  of  God,  and  the  whole  of  it 
is  the  Law  of  the  Lord,  perfect,  pure,  sacred  and  true. 

To  be  sure,  Maimonides  refers  only  to  the  Penta- 
teuch. The  other  parts  of  the  Bible,  the  Prophets, 
and  still  more  so,  the  Hagiographa,  cannot  claim  the 
same  degree  of  sanctity  as  the  Torah.  But  even  these 
sections  of  the  Bible  are  the  product,  though  to  a  less 
immediate  degree,  of  the  spirit  of  the  Lord. 

The  logical  outcome  of  this  conception  is  the  con- 
viction that  the  Bible  is  not  a  literary  monument. 
It  has  often  been  said  that  Maimonides  had  no  eye 
for  the  literary  beauties  of  the  biblical  style.  But  this 
is  a  gross  injustice  to  a  man  who  himself  was  one  of 
the  greatest  stylists  that  the  Jews  have  ever  produced. 
Maimonides  surely  understood,  and  often  himself 
pointed  out,  the  literary  perfection  of  the  Bible;  but 


1  See     his     Mishnah     Commentary,     Tractate     Sanhedrin, 
Introduction  to  Perek  Helek. 


MAIMONIDES  AS  AN  EXEGETE  197 

he  would  have  been  unfaithful  to  his  own  convictions, 
had  he  placed  the  Author  of  the  Universe  on  the  same 
plane  with  an  author  of  books.  To  be  sure,  the 
Bible  exhibits  literary  beauty,  but  its  intrinsic  value, 
its  inner  essence  can  not  be  beauty  but  truth,  philo- 
sophical truth,  which  was  the  highest  form  of  truth 
both  to  him  and  to  the  whole  age  in  which  he  lived. 

From  what  has  preceded  it  follows  that  the  content 
of  the  Bible  must  necessarily  be  philosophical.  At 
the  same  time  Maimonides  could  not  possibly  deny 
that,  as  far  as  the  form  of  the  Bible  was  concerned,  it 
was  not  philosophical.  Maimonides  was  intimately 
acquainted  with  philosophical  literature,  and  he  knew 
that  the  style  in  which  that  literature  was  couched 
was  radically  different.  The  Organon  of  Aristotle 
bears  its  philosophical  imprint  on  the  surface.  Why, 
then,  did  the  Bible  choose  a  form  which  is  so  ambigu- 
ous that  the  content  is  almost  unrecognizable? 
According  to  Maimonides,  the  reason  for  this  strange 
phenomenon  must  be  looked  for  in  the  nature  and 
purpose  of  the  Torah.  Torah  means  "guidance";  it  is 
"a  book  of  guidance  for  the  first  and  the  last."  The 
Torah  does  not  address  itself  to  a  limited  class  of  people 
with  special  intellectual  requirements,  but  to  the  whole 
of  Israel,  nay,  to  the  whole  of  mankind.  When  Moses 
felt  his  death  approaching,  he  called  Joshua  and  said 
to  him:  "Gather  the  people  together,  men,  women 
and  children,  and  the  stranger  that  is  in  thy  gate,  that 
they  may  hear,  and  that  they  may  learn  and  fear  the 
Lord  your  God,  and  observe  all  the  words  of  the 
Law"  (Deut.  xxxi,  12).  Had  the  Bible  been  clothed 
in  a  philosophical  garb,  it  would  not  have  been  under- 


198  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

stood,  or,  what  is  much  worse,  it  would  have  been 
misunderstood.  Its  object  would  in  no  way  have 
been  achieved;  on  the  contrary,  the  very  reverse 
would  have  been  accomplished.  To  use  Maimonides' 
well-known  simile:  wine  and  meat  are  in  themselves 
excellent  articles  of  food,  but,  if  given  to  a  suckling, 
they  would  destroy  his  constitution.  The  Bible  is 
therefore  compelled  to  present  philosophical  truths 
in  popular  unphilosophical  form.  It  appeals  to  the 
most  intellectual  and  at  the  same  time  to  the  most 
unsophisticated  reader.1 

The  outcome  of  this  conception  is  Maimonides' 
belief  in  the  double  sense  of  the  Bible:  an  inner  and  an 
outer  sense.  The  former  is  for  the  thinkers  and 
philosophers,  the  latter  for  the  people  at  large.  To  use 
Maimonides'  own  phraseology:  the  inner  sense  is  for 
the  yehidim,  "the  few,"  who  are  only  to  be  found  "one 
out  of  a  city  and  two  out  of  a  tribe" ;  the  outer  sense  is 
for  the  hamon,  the  hoi  polloi,  the  "many."  The  Bible 
is  thus  made  to  appear  as  a  kind  of  palimpsest  in  which 
the  outer  writing  can  be  easily  discerned  by  every  one 
who  is  able  to  read,  whilst  the  inner  writing  can  only 
be  recognized  by  the  practiced  eye  of  the  scholar. 
Maimonides  himself,  in  the  introduction  to  the  Moreh, 
illustrates  his  view  of  the  double  sense  of  Scripture 
by  a  most  happy  and  striking  simile  which  he  professes 
to  find  in  a  verse  of  the  book  of  Proverbs  (xxv.  11): 
"a  word  fitly  spoken  is  like  golden  apples  in  a  net- 
work of  silver."  Having  elaborately  proved  that  the 
word  maskiyoth,  which  occurs  in  this  verse,  neither 
means   "pictures"    (as   the   English  Version   has  it), 

1  Compare  above  p.  187  et  seq. 


MAIMOMDES  AS  AN  EXEGETE  199 

nor  "vessels,"  as  other  commentators  suggest,  but, 
as  still  other  Jewish  exegetes  had  already  proposed, 
"net-work,"  he  proceeds: 

See,  how  beautifully  this  verse  describes  the  conditions 
of  a  good  form  of  expression!  It  shows  that  in  a  biblical 
passage  which  conveys  a  double  sense  the  plain  meaning 
must  appear  as  beautiful  as  silver,  while  the  hidden  mean- 
ing must  be  even  more  beautiful,  and  bear  the  same  relation 
to  it  as  gold  to  silver.  It  is  further  necessary  that  the  plain 
sense  shall  give  the  reader  at  least  a  hint  as  to  the  purport 
of  the  hidden  meaning.  Just  as  a  golden  apple  overlaid 
with  a  net  work  of  silver,  when  seen  at  a  distance  or  looked 
at  superficially,  is  mistaken  for  a  silver  apple;  but  when  a 
keen-sighted  person  looks  at  the  object  he  will  find  what  is 
within,  and  see  that  the  apple  is  made  of  gold,  so  it  is  with 
the  expressions  of  the  Bible.  Their  outer  meaning  is  sug- 
gestive of  wisdom,  useful  in  many  directions.  .  .  .  Their 
inner  meaning,  however,  contains  wisdom  leading  to  the 
profoundest  religious  beliefs  in  their  very  essence. 

Up  to  this  point  Maimonides  is  still  fair.  The  outer 
meaning,  though  not  as  valuable  as  the  inner  mean- 
ing, still  retains  a  value  of  its  own.  But  this  is 
scarcely  his  innermost  conviction.  His  real  attitude 
toward  the  outer  meaning  of  the  Bible  is  casually  be- 
trayed in  a  passage  of  his  Moreh  (ii,  10).  After  ex- 
plaining the  inner  sense  of  the  "ladder"  in  Jacob's 
dream,  in  which  he  discovers  profound  metaphycical 
truths,  he  suddenly  breaks  forth  into  the  following 
diatribe: 

It  is  in  such  wise  that  those  who  wish  to  understand  the 
dark  sayings  of  the  Prophets  should  try  to  understand  them. 
Only  then  will  they  awake  from  the  sleep  of  thoughtlessness, 
be  rescued  from  the  sea  of  ignorance,  and  rise  upwards  to 
the  world  of  higher  beings.  But  those  who  are  content  to 
swim  in  the  waters  of  their  ignorance  and  sink  to  the  very 


200  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

bottom,  need  not  exert  themselves  either  in  mind  or  in  body. 
All  they  have  to  do  is  to  stop  moving,  and  they  will  be  certain 
to  go  down  by  the  law  of  nature. 

After  this  confession  we  begin  to  grasp  the  seeming 
contradiction  of  which  we  spoke  above.  Maimonides 
declines  to  be  an  exegete  of  the  outer  meaning  of  the 
Bible,  but  he  regards  it  as  the  highest  achievement 
to  be  an  exegete  of  the  inner  meaning  of  Scripture. 
He  does  not  consider  it  worth  while  merely  to  tap 
the  surface  of  the  Bible,  but  it  is  the  consummation 
of  his  life's  work  to  be,  in  the  words  of  Goethe,  the 
man, 

Der,  frei  von  jedem  Schein, 
Nur  in  der  Wesen  Tiefe  trachtet. 

Thus  Maimonides  became  the  philosophical  in- 
terpreter of  the  Bible.  His  interpretations,  however, 
are  not  in  the  nature  of  a  running  commentary  on 
the  Sacred  Writings.  Maimonides  does  not  enter 
the  treasure-chamber  of  the  Bible  with  a  penny  candle 
to  grope  about  in  darkness,  and  incidentally  to  fall 
on  a  gem  or  a  piece  of  gold.  He  stands  on  a  high  plat- 
form, and  from  there  directs  a  most  powerful  search- 
light upon  the  sacred  book,  thus  illumining  the  dark- 
ness and  enabling  others  to  seek. 

In  accordance  with  this  conception,  Maimonides 
lays  down  the  principle  that  every  genealogy  and 
narrative  of  the  Bible  has,  of  necessity,  a  hidden 
philosophical  meaning.  Commenting  on  a  well-known 
passage  in  the  Talmud,  he  declares  that  King  Me- 
nasseh  was  regarded  by  the  Jews  as  particularly 
godless,  because  he  believed  and  preached  that  the 


MAIMONIDES  AS  AN  EXEGETE  201 

biblical  stories  and  genealogies  did  not  possess  any 
inner  significance  and  were  to  be  taken  literally.  I 
have  tried  before  to  defend  Maimonides'  literary  sense. 
But  it  must  be  candidly  admitted  that  he  was  com- 
pletely devoid  of  the  historical  sense — a  defect 
which  he  shared  with  his  entire  age.  He  cannot  con- 
ceive, for  instance,  that  the  genealogical  table  of  the 
descendants  of  Noah  has  a  value  in  itself,  in  fact,  is 
one  of  the  most  valuable  documents  of  antiquity,  and 
he  is  therefore  on  the  lookout  for  philosophical 
reasons  to  justify  its  place  in  the  Bible.  In  the  same 
fashion  Maimonides  interprets  a  number  of  biblical 
narratives,  thus  providing  a  key  for  the  understanding 
of  the  rest. 

From  this  conception  of  the  nature  of  the  Bible  it 
also  follows  that  the  ceremonial  law  must  ultimately 
rest  upon  philosophical  foundations.  A  large  portion 
of  the  third  volume  of  his  "Guide,"  known  under  the 
name  of  Ta'ame  ha-mitzwoth,  "the  Reasons  for  the 
Ceremonies,"  which  is  derived  from  its  subject- 
matter,  is  devoted  to  this  task,  and  it  is  here  that 
Maimonides'  genius,  combined  with  an  unparalleled 
mastery  of  Jewish  tradition,  celebrates  its  greatest 
triumphs. 

I  will  quote  only  one  example  of  Maimonides' 
method  of  interpreting  the  Scriptures,  following  the 
practice  of  Maimonides,  who  always  confines  himself 
to  a  few  illustrations,  leaving  the  rest  to  the  reader. 

Every  student  of  the  Bible  knows  that  in  in- 
numerable instances  God  is  described  as  the  author 
of  the  most  trivial  things  in  life.  In  some  cases  this 
authorship  of  God  presents  great  theological  difficulties. 
Thus  in  I  Kings  xvii,  9,  God  says  to  Elijah,  "Behold, 


202  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

I  have  commanded  thee  a  widow  to  nourish  thee;" 
in  other  words,  God  is  made  to  speak  to  a  heathen 
woman.  Still  worse  is  the  case  in  II  Sam.  xvi,  10. 
David,  while  fleeing  from  Absalom,  is  publicly  cursed 
by  Shimei,  the  son  of  Gera.  David's  adjutant  is 
ready  to  punish  the  offender  on  the  spot.  But 
David  replies:  "Surely,  the  Lord  hath  said  unto 
him:  Curse  David.  Who  shall  then  say,  Wherefore 
hast  thou  done  so"?  God  is  thus  designated  as  the 
author  of  an  action  which  was,  to  say  the  least, 
unjust.  In  Jonah  ii,  11  ("And  God  said  unto  the 
whale,  and  he  spat  out  Jonah"),  God  is  even  made 
to  speak  to  an  animal.  Modern  Semitists  are  ac- 
quainted with  this  form  of  narrative  from  the  Mesha 
inscription,  in  which  the  King  of  Moab  attributes  all 
his  actions  to  his  god  Kemosh.  Maimonides  did  not 
know  the  Mesha  inscription,  which  was  discovered  in 
the  nineteenth  century.  But  his  genius  revealed  the 
truth.  He  lays  down  the  rule  that  the  prophets  often 
omit  the  intermediate  causes,  and  mention  only  the 
first  cause.  Just  as  we  attribute  actions  to  the  king 
which  do  not  proceed  from  him  directly,  for  which, 
however,  he  is  ultimately  responsible,  so  also  do  we 
designate  God  as  the  author  of  many  things,  which 
are  not  His  direct  work,  but  go  back  to  Him  as  the 
final  cause.  Innumerable  difficulties  disappear  after 
this  explanation. 

However,  had  Maimonides  done  nothing  else  than 
to  prove  the  double  sense  of  the  Bible,  he  would  have 
done  nothing  that  was  new.  For  since  the  time  that 
the  Torah  was  given  to  the  world,  it  was  the  Torah 


MAI MON IDES  AS  AN  EXEGETE  203 

alone  which  insisted  on  its  plain  meaning.  "For  this 
commandment  which  I  command  thee  this  day,  it  is 
not  hidden  from  thee,  neither  is  it  far  off.  It  is  not 
in  heaven,  that  thou  shouldst  say,  Who  shall  go  up 
for  us  to  heaven,  and  bring  it  unto  us,  that  we  may 
hear  it  or  do  it?  neither  is  it  beyond  the  sea,  that  thou 
shouldst  say,  Who  shall  go  over  the  sea  for  us,  and 
bring  it  unto  us,  that  we  may  hear  it  or  do  it?  But 
the  word  is  very  nigh  unto  thee,  in  thy  mouth  and  in 
thy  heart  that  thou  mayest  do  it"  (Deut.  xxx,  11-19). 
All  subsequent  Jewish  authorities,  and  oral  Jewish 
tradition,  above  all,  insist  on  Drash,  on  the  explanation 
of  the  inner  sense  of  the  Bible.  The  characteristic 
achievement  of  Maimonides,  therefore,  was  not  that 
he  proved  the  inner  sense  of  the  Bible  in  itself,  but 
that  he  proved  a  special  inner  sense,  an  inner  sense 
which  reveals  contents  derived  from  an  extraneous 
source — derived,  in  short,  from  Aristotle.  Maimo- 
nides not  only  discovers  deep  truths  beneath  the 
biblical  surface;  he  discovers  specific  Aristotelian 
truths. 

For  Maimonides  believed  in  Aristotle  well-nigh  as 
firmly  as  he  believed  in  the  Bible.  In  our  age  of 
democracy  and  equal  suffrage,  when  hero-worship  is 
as  scarce  as  heroes,  we  cannot  possibly  form  an 
adequate  conception  of  the  reverence  which  Aristotle 
enjoyed  during  that  highly  civilized  age.  To  the 
whole  Jewish-Arabic  period  Aristotle  was  the  Philo- 
sopher. In  the  generation  preceding  Maimonides 
the  Jewish  thinker  Abraham  ibn  Daud  of  Toledo,  who 
died  as  a  martyr  in  1180,  declared  Aristotle  the 
highest  authority,  in  whose  light  the  Scriptures  had 


204  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

to  be  examined.  As  for  Maimonides,  he  frequently 
goes  out  of  his  way  to  voice  his  boundless  admiration 
for  the  thinker  of  Stagira.  On  one  occasion  he 
proclaims  Aristotle  to  be  "the  final  stage  which  has 
ever  been  attained  or  will  ever  be  attained  by  the 
human  intellect."  On  another  occasion  he  affirms 
that  whatever  Aristotle  had  said  about  the  physical 
world  must  be  accepted  as  irrefutable  truth.  Aris- 
totle is  true.  The  Torah  is  true.  Ergo  Aristotle  and 
the  Torah  are  identical.  The  Torah  is  the  divine 
anticipation  of  the  human  discoveries  of  Aristotle. 

This  identity  is  established — and  can  only  be 
established — by  means  of  allegorical  interpretation. 
Allegorical  interpretation  is  defined  by  Maimonides 
as  the  proper  understanding  of  the  metaphors  and 
similes  used  by  the  Prophets.  In  the  introduction 
to  his  "Guide,"  Maimonides  declares  by  way  of 
premise  that  "the  key  to  the  understanding  and  the 
full  comprehension  of  all  the  words  of  the  Prophets 
is  the  knowledge  of  the  similes  and  their  contents,  and 
the  proper  explanation  of  the  prophetic  expressions." 
This  explanation  Maimonides  designates  as  one  of  the 
chief  purposes  of  his  "Guide." 

Overlooking  Maimonides'  endeavors  in  this  direc- 
tion, we  have  no  difficulty  in  acknowledging  that  he 
himself  is  the  most  ingenious  representative  of  alle- 
gorical interpretation.  True,  attempts  in  that  domain 
had  been  made  before  Maimonides,  not  only,  in  the 
traditional  form  of  Drash,  on  the  part  of  the  Rabbis, 
but  also,  in  a  more  philosophical  direction,  by  Saadia 
Gaon,  and  others.  Yet  they  were  only  attempts. 
It  is  also  true  that  twelve  hundred  years  before  Mai- 


MAI MON IDES  AS  AN  EXEGETE  205 

monides  there  existed  in  Alexandria  a  full-fledged 
school  of  Allegorical  Interpretation.  The  chief  works 
of  Philo,  the  highest  representative  of  Alexandrian 
culture,  are  devoted  to  this  form  of  biblical  exegesis. 
But  Maimonides  scarcely  knew  of  the  existence  of  his 
Alexandrian  predecessors,  and  there  are,  moreover, 
essential  differences  between  him  and  the  Alexan- 
drians,— differences  which  arise  mainly  from  their 
different  mental  equipment.  Whether  Philo  was  able 
to  read  Hebrew  or  not,  may  be  open  to  doubt,  but 
that  he  was  not  a  Jewish  scholar  is  certain.  Ignorance 
may  often  be  bliss,  but  in  this  province  it  is  bound  to 
prove  a  curse.  Allegorical  interpretation  which  is  not 
held  in  check  by  an  exact  knowledge  of  the  biblical 
text  resembles  a  balloon  without  ballast.  It  rises 
rapidly  and  soon  loses  itself  in  the  clouds.  It  has  no 
trouble  in  starting,  but  has  the  greatest  difficulty  in 
coming  down.  Maimonides,  on  the  other  hand,  was 
one  of  the  greatest  Jewish  scholars  that  ever  lived; 
he  knew  the  subject  of  his  interpretation  in  its  minutest 
details,  and  was  constantly  guided  and  controlled  by 
the  biblical  text.  With  the  Alexandrians  allegorical 
interpretation  was  a  play  of  imagination ;  with  Mai- 
monides it  was  the  work  of  science. 

In  dealing  with  the  allegorical  interpretation  of  the 
Bible,  Maimonides  proceeds  in  the  systematic  manner 
which  is  characteristic  of  this  greatest  systematic 
genius  of  the  Jewish  nation.  Before  attacking  his 
subject  of  inquiry,  he  first  seeks  to  lay  down  its  foun- 
dations, and  he  does  so  by  proving  that  the  use  of 
figurative  speech  in  the  Bible  is  not  accidental,  but 
lies  in  the  very  nature  of  Scripture. 


206  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

Prophecy,  according  to  Maimonides,  is  a  psycho- 
logical process,  which  operates  primarily  by  means  of 
the  imaginative  faculty  of  man.  Consequently  its 
medium  of  expression  consists  in  that  form  of  speech 
which  is  born  of  the  imagination,  and  therefore  appeals 
to  the  imagination, — in  figurative  speech,  or  in 
similes.  The  Bible  itself  unmistakably  points  to  this 
underlying  connection  between  prophecy  and  similes. 
Hosea  (xii,  10)  is  told  by  the  Lord:  "I  have  spoken 
in  similes  by  the  prophets."  Ezekiel  receives  the 
divine  injunction  (xvii,  2):  "Son  of  man,  put  forth  a 
simile  and  speak  a  parablel" ,  and  the  wise  King  Solo- 
mon thus  defines  the  object  of  his  book  (Proverbs  i,  6) : 
"To  understand  a  simile  and  figurative  speech,  the 
words  of  the  wise  and  their  dark  sayings."  We 
should  be  astonished,  were  the  Bible  not  to  speak  in 
allegories.  Maimonides  is  so  firmly  convinced  of  the 
appropriateness  of  this  form  of  expression  in  the  case 
of  the  Bible,  that  on  one  occasion  (Moreh  ii,  25)  he 
boldly  declares  that,  had  the  eternity  of  the  world, 
as  taught  by  Aristotle,  been  philosophically  demon- 
strated, he  would  not  have  hesitated  to  explain  the 
contradictory  biblical  passages  in  a  figurative  sense, 
"for  the  gates  of  allegorical  interpretation  are  not 
closed."  It  is  remarkable,  however,  that,  in  spite  of 
these  premises,  Maimonides  remains  at  all  times 
moderate  and  sober.  His  interpretations  are  always 
in  harmony  with  Hebrew  grammar  and  lexicography. 

A  few  examples  will  serve  to  illustrate  his  method  of 
allegorical  interpretation. 

One  of  the  principal  elements  of  Aristotelian  phil- 
osophy, or,  more  correctly,  of  the  Arabic  modification 


MAIMONIDES  AS  AN  EXEGETE  207 

of  Aristotelian  philosophy,  is  the  doctrine  of  Separate 
Intelligences.  According  to  Aristotle,  the  world 
consists  of  Matter  and  Form,  or,  as  we  should  say  in 
modern  times,  of  Matter  and  Mind.  Matter  is  in- 
ferior, the  source  of  all  defects.  Form  is  divine,  the 
source  of  all  perfection.  The  lower  world,  or,  as 
Aristotle  styles  it,  the  sublunar  world,  presents  in  all 
its  phenomena  a  mixture  of  both.  Matter  is  subject 
to  destruction,  and  only  Mind  survives.  But  the 
upper  world,  the  world  of  spheres,  is  made  up  of 
beings  which  are  free  from  bodily  matter.  They  are 
Separate  Intelligences,  which  have  no  body,  and  are 
consequently  immortal.  These  Intelligences  are  at- 
tached to  the  spheres  and  form,  as  it  were,  their  souls. 
They  move  the  spheres,  and  through  the  instru- 
mentality of  the  latter  they  set  in  motion  all  things 
in  the  sublunar  world,  thus  acting  as  intermediaries 
between  God,  the  First  Cause,  and  the  lower  world 
beneath  the  moon. 

We  all  know  what  the  "angels"  are,  and  we  often 
admire  their  winged  figures  in  works  of  art.  But  to 
Maimonides,  as  already  to  his  predecessor,  Abraham 
Ibn  Daud,  it  was  a  self-evident  truth  that  the  Mal- 
'akhim,  or  "angels,"  of  the  Bible  are  identical  with  the 
Separate  Intelligences  of  Aristotelian  philosophy. 

We  have  already  explained  in  a  previous  chapter  of  this 
book — Maimonides  remarks  in  his  Moreh  (ii,  6) — that  the 
angels  are  not  corporeal.  This  is  exactly  what  Aristotle 
says.  There  is  only  a  difference  in  name:  Aristotle  speaks 
of  Separate  Intelligences,  while  we  speak  of  Mal'akhim,  or 
Angels. 

The  Greek  Angelos,  the  prototype  of  the  English 
word,  means,  like  the  Hebrew  MaVakh,  "a  Messenger," 


208  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

because  the  angels,  as  indicated  above,  act  as  God's 
messengers  in  the  sublunar  world.  It  is  therefore 
natural  that  they  are  described  in  the  prophetic 
writings  in  a  manner  which  conveys  the  same  idea. 
Since  the  conception  of  incorporeal  beings  is  inacces- 
sible to  the  average  mind,  the  angels  are  represented 
in  the  Bible  as  having  bodily  form.  And  since  the 
Bible,  in  an  endeavor  to  bring  God  nearer  to  the 
human  understanding,  frequently  applies  to  the 
Deity  the  attributes  of  man,  it  pictures  the  angels,  in 
order  to  accentuate  their  subordinate  position  to  the 
Godhead,  in  the  shape  of  animals.  Constituting  the 
moving  forces  in  the  process  of  the  world,  the  angels 
are  described  as  being  endowed  with  movement,  with 
the  most  perfect  form  of  movement,  for  which  even 
man  yearns  in  vain — with  flying.  Since  flying  is  incon- 
ceivable without  wings,  the  angels  are  consistently 
represented  as  winged  animals.  Thus  the  healthy 
hue  of  the  celestial  beings  of  the  Bible  is  sicklied  o'er 
with  the  pale  cast  of  Aristotelian  abstractions. 

Another  example  may  serve  as  a  further  illustration. 

We  have  seen  previously  that  the  world,  according 
to  Aristotle,  consists  of  Matter  and  Form,  or  Matter 
and  Mind.  All  evil  originates  in  Matter,  in  the 
sensual  nature  of  man ;  all  perfection  emanates  from 
Form,  or  Mind.  Since  Matter  is  passive,  being  shaped 
by  Form,  Plato  already  had  designated  Matter  as 
"Woman."  The  same  figurative  meaning,  according 
to  Maimonides,  is  attached  to  the  word  Isha,  the 
Hebrew  word  for  "woman,"  in  the  Bible.  Many  a 
passage  receives  through  this  interpretation  a  new 
and    fascinating   significance.     When    the   wise    king 


MAIMONIDES  AS  AN  EXEGETE  209 

praises  the  Esheth  hayil,  "the  virtuous  woman,"  who 
is  "the  crown  of  her  husband,"  he  only  refers  to  a 
willing  matter,  to  a  physical  disposition  which  is  so 
constituted  that  it  readily  yields  to  Form,  is  cheer- 
fully governed  by  Mind.  When  the  same  royal 
author  in  a  famous  passage  (Proverbs  vii.)  warns  us 
against  "the  faithless  woman,  the  strange  woman 
which  flattereth  with  her  words,"  and  endeavors  to 
catch  in  her  net  the  inexperienced  youth,  he  actually 
means  Matter,  the  seductive  sensual  nature  of  man; 
and  thus  the  immortal  speech  against  the  Smart  Set 
of  three  thousand  years  ago  is  turned  into  a  philo- 
sophical exposition  in  the  Aristotelian  spirit. 

The  consummation  of  Maimonides'  allegorical  in- 
terpretation will  be  found,  however,  in  his  adaptation 
of  the  biblical  text  to  the  Aristotelian  system  of 
Physics  and  Metaphysics.  For  the  physical,  and 
still  more  so  the  metaphysical,  doctrines  of  Aristotle 
are  the  crown  of  the  edifice  of  Aristotelian  thought. 
Consequently,  they  cannot  be  missing  in  the  Divine 
manual  of  philosophy.  Maimonides  is  firmly  con- 
vinced that  the  first  chapters  of  Genesis  contain  a 
system  of  Physics,  and  the  first  chapter  of  Ezekiel — 
the  vision  of  the  Divine  Chariot — a  system  of  meta- 
physics which  are  practically  identical  with  the  teach- 
ings of  Aristotle.  It  may  be  a  problem  how  far  the 
first  chapters  in  Genesis  can  be  reconciled  with  the 
results  of  Science;  but  this  much  is  certain,  that  they 
do  not  teach  Aristotle.  The  actual  meaning  and 
background  of  the  visions  of  Ezekiel  may  be  a  matter 
of  dispute,  but  there  is  no  doubt  that  Ezekiel  knew 
as  much  of  Aristotle — as  Aristotle  of  Ezekiel.     Yet 


210  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

the  genius  of  Maimonides  makes  the  impossible 
possible.  He  brings  into  harmony  two  hostile  worlds. 
He  casts  a  bridge  over  the  ocean  that  separates  Hellas 
from  Judea.  The  allegorical  net  is  laid  so  skilfully 
that  we  have  to  mobilize  all  our  inborn  skepticism  in 
order  to  escape  it.  For  however  fantastic  his  task, 
his  method  is  sound  and  sober. 

I  will  indicate,  in  as  few  words  as  possible,  the 
salient  points  of  his  interpretation.  In  doing  this,  I 
am  conscious  of  acting  against  the  will  of  Maimonides, 
who  repeatedly  warns  us  against  the  public  presenta- 
tion of  what  he  considers  "the  Mysteries  of  the  Law." 
But  I  hope  that  the  spirit  of  Maimonides  will  forgive 
me  if,  in  order  to  characterize  his  genius,  I  have  to 
disobey  his  wishes. 

In  the  biblical  account  of  Creation  we  read  (Gen. 
i,  2):  "And  the  earth  was  without  form,  and  void, 
and  darkness  was  upon  the  face  of  the  deep,  and  the 
breath  (riiah)  of  the  Lord  moved  upon  the  face  of  the 
waters."  In  this  verse  four  elements,  the  existence 
of  which  is  assumed  in  the  Aristotelian  system  of 
physics,  are  clearly  indicated.  "Earth"  and  "Water" 
are  mentioned  expressly.  The  "breath  of  the  Lord" 
(as  Maimonides,  with  considerable  philological  justi- 
fication, translates  instead  of  "Spirit")  can  easily 
enough  be  explained  as  Air.  But  what  about  Fire? 
An  allusion  to  Fire,  according  to  Maimonides,  is  con- 
tained in  the  word  "darkness,"  for  the  Elementary 
Fire,  as  Avicenna,  and  to  some  extent  Aristotle  him- 
self, taught,  is  colorless,  since  otherwise  the  atmo- 
sphere would  be  all  aglow  at  night.  The  Bible  itself 
repeatedly  points  to  the  "dark"  nature  of  Fire,  by 


MAI MON IDES  AS  AN  EXEGETE  211 

using  "Darkness"  as  a  synonym  of  "Fire."  In 
Deuteronomy  iv,  36,  in  the  account  of  the  Revelation, 
we  read:  "And  thou  heardst  his  words  out  of  the 
fire."  A  little  later  (v.  20),  however,  the  same  idea 
is  expressed  in  the  words:  "When  ye  heard  the  voice 
out  of  the  darkness"  while  in  Job  (xx,  26)  we  read  in 
one  and  the  same  verse:  "All  darkness  shall  be  hid 
in  his  secret  places;  a  fire  not  blown  shall  consume 
him." 

Ezekiel's  vision  contains  Aristotle's  system  of  meta- 
physics. In  its  centre  stands  the  theory  of  the 
spheres.  The  spheres,  according  to  Aristotle,  are 
superior,  almost  Divine  beings,  which  are  endowed 
with  the  most  perfect  form  of  movement,  the  circular 
movement.  Through  this  movement  the  elements 
of  the  sublunar  world,  which  originally  were  separated, 
are  set  in  motion,  and  the  incessant  change  in  their 
mixture,  caused  by  the  movement  of  the  spheres, 
constitutes  the  process  of  the  world.  All  this  is  in- 
telligibly enough  indicated  in  Ezekiel.  The  four 
"living  creatures"  in  the  Chariot  personify  the  four 
principal  spheres:  the  spheres  of  the  moon,  the  sun, 
the  planets  and  the  fixed  stars.  The  circular  nature 
of  their  movement  is  pointed  out  unmistakably  in  the 
frequently  repeated  phrase:  "They  turned  not  when 
they  went."  The  complete  dependence  of  the  Ele- 
ments on  the  Spheres  is  stated  in  verse  15:  "Behold, 
one  Ofan  (Element)  was  upon  the  earth  by  the 
living  creatures;"  still  more  explicitly  in  verse  19: 
"When  the  living  creatures  went,  the  Ofanim  went 
by  them,"  and  in  verse  21 :  "Wrhen  those  went  these 
went,  and  when  those  stood  these  stood  .  .  .  for 
the  spirit  of  the  living  creatures  (the  Spheres)  was  in 


212  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

the  OJanim."  In  the  same  vein  Maimonides  treats 
the  whole  chapter,  presenting  an  unbroken  chain  of 
ingenious  observations  and  apercus. 

I  have  said  before  that  Maimonides'  exegesis  rests 
on  an  elaborate  understanding  of  the  biblical  text. 
His  allegorical  interpretation  is  solidly  constructed 
on  philological  interpretation.  By  philological  in- 
terpretation Maimonides  chiefly  understands  the 
elucidation  of  the  development  of  the  meaning  of  a 
word.  This  task  had  already  been  recognized  and 
pursued  by  his  predecessor  and  countryman  Abu'l- 
Walid  ibn  Janah,  and  is  still  zealously  pursued  by 
modern  philology,  which  endeavors  to  show  how  the 
originally  rude  and  concrete  meaning  of  a  word  gradu- 
ally assumes  a  subtle  and  spiritual  connotation. 
Maimonides  uses  this  study  of  lexicography  as  a 
means  whereby  he  hopes  to  attain  one  of  the  most 
important  philosophical  ends.  From  the  time  of  the 
Decalogue,  which  forbids  the  Jews  to  ascribe  to  God 
any  bodily  likeness,  down  to  our  own  days  of  abstract 
thinking,  Judaism  has  insisted  on  a  spiritual  concep- 
tion of  the  Godhead.  The  masses,  however,  not 
being  able  to  grasp  so  lofty  a  conception,  have  adopted 
less  spiritual  and  more  concrete  ideas,  while  Jewish 
scholars  have  been  gradually  reconciled  to  this  im- 
perfection of  the  masses  as  a  necessary  evil.  But  to 
Maimonides,  as  to  any  other  follower  of  the  Aris- 
totelian philosophy,  to  whom  the  essence  of  God  con- 
sists of  pure  mind,  free  from  the  defects  of  matter, 
a  corporeal  conception  of  God  is  equivalent  to  the 
negation  of  God.  Maimonides  consequently  makes 
the  greatest  efforts  to  eradicate  these  corporeal 
notions  of  the  Deity.     He  protests  with  utmost  vigor 


MAI MON IDES  AS  AN  EXEGETE  213 

against  these  notions  in  all  his  writings,  whether  they 
be  scholarly  or  popular,  and  he  formulates  this  protest 
as  a  religious  dogma  at  the  head  of  his  Articles  of 
Faith. 

At  the  same  time  Maimonides  cannot  deny,  nor 
does  he  attempt  to  deny,  that  the  Bible  often  applies 
corporeal  and  anthropomorphic  expressions  to  the 
Deity.  This  difficulty  appeared  to  Maimonides,  as 
well  as  to  his  contemporaries,  so  momentous  and  per- 
plexing that  his  philosophical  standard  work  begins 
directly  with  the  elucidation  of  this  problem.  In  fact, 
he  expressly  designates  the  interpretation  of  these 
anthropomorphic  expressions  as  one  of  the  chief  aims 
of  his  book.  He  enumerates  over  forty  such  terms, 
showing  that,  in  accordance  with  the  general  develop- 
ment of  language,  they  have  gradually  assumed  a 
spiritual  connotation.  I  will  quote  only  two  of  these 
terms — panim,  "face,"  and  ahor,  "back,"  the  latter 
being  probably  the  most  objectionable  of  these  an- 
thropomorphisms— in  order  to  illustrate  Maimonides' 
way  of  procedure.  Panim  has  three  meanings 
developed  out  of  one  another:  (1)  "face,"  (2) 
"before"  (in  a  local  sense),  (3)  "presence,  existence." 
Ahor  again  designates:  (1)  "back,"  (2)  "after" 
(temporal),  (3)  "traces,  consequences."  It  is  in  these 
latter  meanings  that  these  terms  must  be  inter- 
preted when  applied  to  the  Deity.  When  we  read 
in  Exodus  xxxiii,  23,  God's  reply  to  Moses:  "Thou 
shalt  see  my  back,  but  my  face  cannot  be  seen," 
we  are  utterly  perplexed  to  find  such  strikingly 
corporeal  terms  applied  to  God.  But  when  we  assign 
to  the  words  in  question  the  spiritual  meaning  which 
was  proved  to  inhere  in  them,  we  take  this  verse  to 


214  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

mean:  "Thou  shalt  see  my  traces,  my  activity,  but 
my  face,  my  real  existence,  cannot  be  seen,"  and 
there  is  suddenly  revealed  the  deep  philosophical 
truth  that  God  can  only  be  conceived  through  His 
works,  but  not  in  His  essence. 

We  have  thus  traced  the  four  main  ends,  which 
Maimonides  avowedly  set  before  himself  in  his  philo- 
sophical lifework:  (1)  to  explain  the  corporeal, 
anthropomorphic  expressions  in  the  Bible  in  their 
spiritual  sense;  (2)  to  interpret  the  similes  of  the  proph- 
ets in  their  allegorical  significance;  (3)  to  elucidate 
the  true  meaning  of  the  account  of  Creation  as  a 
system  of  Physics,  and  (4)  to  expound  the  vision  of 
Ezekiel  as  a  system  of  Metaphysics. 

Maimonides'  exegesis  proved  so  successful — so 
much  more  successful  than  that  of  the  Alexandrian 
philosophers — because  it  rested  on  a  solid  basis.  Mai- 
monides was  not  an  amateur,  but  a  scholar,  and  what 
he  built  was  not  a  castle  in  the  air  but  a  structure  of 
bricks  and  mortar.  I  will  briefly  indicate  the  building 
material  employed  by  Maimonides  for  his  exegesis. 
It  certainly  was  not  as  varied  as  ours.  He  knew 
nothing,  to  mention  only  a  single  point,  of  the  Sep- 
tuagint.  But  the  material  at  his  disposal  is  turned 
by  him  to  most  excellent  advantage.  He  makes  fre- 
quent use  of  the  Targum,  especially  the  Targum  of  the 
Pentateuch,  erroneously  attributed  to  Onkelos  (Aqui- 
las),  for  whom  he  shows  the  highest  regard.  He 
treats  his  version  almost  in  the  same  critical  manner 
in  which  modern  scholars  are  wont  to  treat  the  ancient 
versions  of  the  Bible.  He  collates  a  number  of 
manuscripts,  and  sometimes  he  gives  us  various  read- 
ings of  one  passage.     He  also  makes  extensive  use  of  his 


MAIMONIDES  AS  AX  EXEGETE  215 

predecessors.  Maimonides  lived  at  the  height  of  a 
period  whose  achievements  in  the  field  of  Biblical 
science  have  not  yet  been  surpassed.  He  did  not  know 
Rashi,  but  he  knew  and  utilized  the  grammatical 
works  of  Hayyuj  and  Abu'l-Walid,  and  the  exegetical 
works  of  Saadia  Gaon,  Moses  ibn  Gicatilla,  Judah 
Ibn  Bal'am  and  Abraham  Ibn  Ezra.  His  work 
resembles  the  ladder  in  the  vision  of  Jacob,  to  which 
he  assigns  such  a  deep  philosophical  meaning.  The 
ladder  stood  on  the  ground,  but  its  top  reached  to 
heaven:  Maimonides'  exegesis  loses  itself  in  the 
heights  of  Metaphysics,  but  it  is  solidly  rooted  in  the 
soil  of  science  and  philology. 

The  question  as  to  his  predecessors  leads  us  to  the 
last  point:  to  the  consideration  of  the  effects  of  his 
work. 

It  would  certainly  be  wrong  to  judge  Maimonides 
by  his  imitators  It  cannot  be  denied  that  some  of 
those  who  followed  him,  having  neither  the  knowledge 
nor  the  genius  of  their  master,  grossly  overdid  his 
allegorical  method.  But  were  great  men  to  be  judged 
by  those  who  caricatured  them,  they  would  fre- 
quently stand  forth  as  the  most  objectionable  speci- 
mens of  mankind.  Maimonides'  beneficial  influence 
on  Judaism  can  scarcely  be  overestimated.  He  en- 
deavored to  become,  and  he  actually  did  become,  a 
"Guide  of  the  Perplexed."  When  in  the  letters  ad- 
dressed to  him,  of  which  we  have  so  many  specimens 
in  the  Geniza  fragments  treasured  in  the  library  of 
Cambridge  University,  he  is  styled  Orenenu,  "Light 
of  our  Eyes,"  it  is  not  mere  oriental  exaggeration,  but 
literal  truth.  We  are  all  acquainted  with  the  terrible 
struggle   which    broke    out    soon    after    Maimonides' 


216  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

death.  Maimonides  emerged  successfully  from  this 
struggle.  He  achieved  his  end.  He  made  his  method 
of  allegorical  interpretation  a  "Type  of  Rabbinical 
Exegesis."  Before  him,  and  even  in  his  own  writings, 
we  meet  on  the  one  side  the  philosopher  and,  on  the 
other  side,  the  rabbinical  student,  facing  each  other 
in  a  most  threatening  attitude.  Through  the  efforts 
of  Maimonides  and  his  popularizer,  David  Kimchi, 
there  gradually  came  into  existence  the  harmonized 
type  of  the  rabbinical  philosopher  and  the  philo- 
sophical rabbi.  This  combination  proved  most  fruitful 
and  vivifying  for  Judaism.  True,  Maimonides' 
philosophy  is  no  longer  valid, — any  more  than  is  that 
of  Aristotle.  People  whose  intellectual  vision  is 
limited  by  the  narrow  horizon  of  the  present  may 
boast  of  superiority,  and  act  like  children  who,  stand- 
ing on  the  shoulders  of  adults,  shout  that  they  are 
taller.  But  he  who  is  able  "to  remember  the  days  of 
yore,  to  understand  the  years  of  past  generations" 
will  look  at  the  work  of  Maimonides  with  reverence 
and  humility.  He  will  be  animated  by  the  same 
feeling  of  awe  which  strikes  the  dweller  in  a  modern 
apartment  house,  "with  the  latest  improvements," 
at  the  sight  of  the  overwhelming  ruins  of  Ancient 
Rome.  Maimonides  has  been  called  the  Jewish 
Aristotle.  This  is  by  no  means  an  exaggerated 
compliment.  Maimonides  resembles  Aristotle  not 
only  in  his  way  of  thinking,  but  also  in  his  influence 
on  posterity.  Aristotle's  philosophy  is  dead,  but 
its  spirit  pervades  and  animates  modern  thought. 
The  elements  of  Maimonides  philosophy  are  anti- 
quated, but  the  spirit  of  Maimonides  is  still  alive,  and 
will  remain  alive  for  ever. 


XII 
MAIMONIDES  AS  A  MASTER  OF  STYLE* 

IF  the  French  dictum  le  style  cest  Vhomme  be  true 
then  we  are  entitled  to  expect  a  characteristic 
style  of  so  characteristic  a  personality  as  Maimonides. 
This  expectation  is,  indeed,  fully  borne  out  by  the  facts. 
An  analysis  of  Maimonides'  literary  activity  from  this 
specific  angle  abundantly  justifies  the  contention  that 
Maimonides  is  not  only  one  of  the  profoundest 
thinkers  of  the  Jewish  people  but  also  one  of  its  most 
brilliant  writers,  one  of  those  masters  of  the  pen  who 
understand  the  rare  art  of  combining  depth  of  thought 
with  beauty  of  form. 

Maimonides  himself  lays  considerable  emphasis 
upon  the  external  form  in  which  ideas  are  conveyed  to 
the  human  mind,  and  therefore  attaches  extraordinary 
significance  to  the  vocation  of  an  author. 

You  must  know — Maimonides  writes  in  one  of  his  letters1 
— that  he  who  undertakes  to  speak  or  preach  in  public  is  in 
duty  bound  to  rehearse  what  he  is  about  to  say  at  least 
four  times  and  thus  fix  it  firmly  in  his  mind.  But  he  who 
wishes  to  put  down  something  in  writing  and  perpetute 
it  in  a  book  is  obliged  to  examine  it  a  thousand  times  if  he 
can  manage  to  do  so. 

*Published  originally  in  German  in  a  collection  of  essays 
bearing  on  the  life  and  work  of  Maimonides,  which  appeared 
under  the  title  Moses  ben  Maimon  (volume  i,  Leipsic,  1908, 
pp.  429-438). 

1  Kobetz  teshuboth  ha-Rambam,  ed.  Lichtenberg,  vol.  ii, 
p.  12a. 


218  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

At  the  same  time  if  we  do  not  wish  to  misconceive 
entirely  the  nature  of  Maimonides'  style  and  his 
attitude  towards  it  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  the 
style  per  se  is  of  no  value  whatsoever  in  the  eyes  of 
Maimonides.  This  particular  view  upon  the  literary 
form  of  expression  is  the  natural  outgrowth  of  Mai- 
monides' bent  of  mind  which  is  strictly  teleological, 
I  might  say,  idealistically  utilitraian,  insofar  as  Mai- 
monides is  inclined  to  look  at  all  phenomena  of  life 
from  the  point  of  view  of  expediency — though  this 
expediency  be  of  an  ideal  nature — and  to  conceive 
of  the  entire  process  of  the  universe  as  well  as  of 
human  existence  as  a  mere  stepping  stone  to  the  one 
great  purpose,— the  contemplation  of  God.  It  is 
blasphemous,  in  the  opinion  of  Maimonides,  to  ascribe 
any  action  to  God  which  is  not  directed  towards  a 
well-defined  goal,1  and  in  like  manner  every  action 
in  human  life  which  does  not  ultimately  lead  to  this 
lofty  end— the  contemplation  of  God- — must  be  pro- 
nounced immoral.2  A  concept  like  Kant's  "dis- 
interested contemplation,"  the  importance  of  which 
is  found  in  the  very  aimlessness  of  the  contemplated 
object,  is  entirely  alien  to  Maimonides'  way  of  think- 
ing. Maimonides  is  strongly  prejudiced  against 
poetry,  for  the  reason  that  poetry  is  in  its  very  essence 
aesthetic  and  not  ethical,  i.  e.,  not  teleological, — a 
prejudice,  by  the  way,  which  exercised  a  vast  in- 
fluence upon  his  whole  system  of  thought,  for  it 
placed  him  under  the  necessity  of  transforming  the 
biblical  poetry  into  a  biblical  philosophy. 

1  Moreh  iii,  25. 

2  Eight  Chapters,  Ch.  5. 


MAIMOMDES  AS  A  MASTER  OF  STYLE         219 

Looked  at  from  this  point  of  view,  the  style  as  such 
can  lay  no  claim  to  any  merit  of  its  own,  but  must 
rather  confine  itself  to  serving  as  a  means  to  an  end, 
an  end  which  can  be  no  other  than  the  faithful  repro- 
duction of  human  ideas.  Judged  by  these  standards, 
the  first  requirement  of  style  cannot  be  beauty,  but 
lucidity.  Lucidity  is,  indeed,  the  most  striking 
feature  of  Maimonides'  style.  This  feature  is  reflected 
not  only  in  Maimonides'  form  of  expression  but  also 
in  the  entire  construction  of  his  literary  works  which 
makes  Maimonides  stand  out  as  the  greatest  system- 
atic mind  in  Judaism. 

Now  to  the  systematic  mind,  whose  main  art  con- 
sists in  focusing  attention  upon  the  principal  point 
and  to  consider  the  less  essential  points  only  insofar 
as  they  help  to  throw  light  upon  the  principal  point,4 
lucidity  is  inseparable  from  brevity.  Maimonides 
takes  frequent  occasion,  with  the  proud  humility  so 
characteristic  of  his  personality,  to  claim  special  credit 
for  this  stylistic  merit  of  his  writings: 

All  our  works  are  carefully  sifted  and  cleansed.  It  is 
never  our  intention  to  swell  the  volume  of  our  writings  or  to 
waste  our  time  in  useless  discussions.  When  we  have  to 
explain  a  topic  we  only  explain  that  which  is  absolutely 
in  need  of  explanation,  and  explain  it  only  so  far  as  it  is 
necessary  to  bring  the  idea  nearer  to  the  understanding. 
Outside  of  this  we  usually  confine  ourselves  in  our  writings 
to  a  brief  exposition  of  the  subject. 

You  who  study  my  writings  know  full  well  that  I  am 
always   at    pains   to   avoid    all    discussions    and    polemics. 


4  In  his  introduction  to  the  Moreh  Maimonides,  in  enumerat- 
ing the  various  methods  resorted  to  by  writers,  mentions  also 
the  disregard  of  detail  with  a  view  to  simplifying  a  difficult 
subject. 


220  PAST  AND  PRESENT 


Nay,  were  it  possible  for  me  to  summarize  the  whole  of  the 
Talmud  in  one  sentence  I  would  not  try  to  extend  it  over 
two  sentences.1 

Maimonides  frequently  appeals  to  his  readers  not 
to  treat  his  works  as  if  they  were  ordinary  reading 
matter,  "which  one  is  prone  to  glance  through  in  the 
interludes  between  the  pleasures  of  wine-drinking 
and  love-making,"2  but  to  peruse  them  repeatedly 
and  with  concentrated  attention: 

Read  my  works  time  and  again  and  ponder  over  them 
intensively.  Should  your  fancy  lead  you  to  believe  that  you 
have  grasped  their  meaning  after  reading  them  for  the  first 
or  even  for  the  tenth  time,  then,  by  God,  it  has  misled  you 
into  entertaining  an  entirely  wrong  idea.  In  reading  them 
(my  books)  you  must  not  proceed  in  a  hurry.  I  did  not 
put  them  in  writing  in  a  haphazard  fashion  but  after  much 
thinking  and  weighing.3 

The  clearness  so  characteristic  of  Maimonides' 
style  is  not  i,n  the  least  impaired  by  the  great  length 
of  the  sentences  in  which  Maimonides,  in  his  striving 
for  utmost  brevity,  is  frequently  prone  to  indulge. 
For  his  sentences  are  built  with  such  consummate 
skill  and  such  clear-cut  logic  that,  in  spite  of  their 
excessive  length,  they  are  wonderfully  lucid.  A 
brilliant  specimen  of  this  remarkable  art  to  unloosen 
the  most  complicated  tangles  of  thought  and  lay 
them  asunder  into  their  separate  threads  will  be 
found  in  the  last  chapters  of  the  first  volume  of  the 
Moreh,  in  which  Maimonides  analyzes  the  arguments 
advanced  by  the  Mohammedan   theologians  of  the 

1  Kobetz  ii,  p.  10a. 

Compare  Moreh  i,  2. 
3  Introduction  to  Perek   Helek,  towards  the  end.     Compare 
also  the  introduction  to  Seder  Tohoroth,  towards  the  end. 


MAIMONIDES  AS  A  MASTER  OF  STYLE         221 

Kalam  school  to  prove  the  existence  and  unity  of  God. 
These  chapters  in  which  some  of  the  obscurest 
metaphysical  problems  are  presented  to  the  reader 
with  crystal-like  transparency  are  well  worthy  even 
today  to  serve  as  an  introduction  to  the  study  of 
philosophy.  But  the  most  overwhelming  proof  for 
this  unique  feature  of  Maimonides'  style  is  afforded 
by  the  fact  that,  in  spite  of  his  earnest  endeavor — 
which,  by  the  way,  is  frankly  admitted  by  him — to 
veil  his  philosophic  views  from  the  mass  of  the  people, 
his  Moreh,  which  addresses  itself  to  an  exclusive 
circle  of  mature  thinkers,  became  in  his  hands,  very 
much  against  his  intention,  a  work  of  bewitching 
lucidity  and  charm  of  presentation. 

However,  lucidity  and  brevity  do  not  as  yet  con- 
stitute a  style,  least  of  all  an  individual  style.  To 
bring  this  about  a  number  of  characteristics  are  re- 
quired which  impart  taste  and  individuality  to  style, 
even  as  chemical  ingredients  do  in  the  case  of  water. 
Needless  to  say  these  characteritsics,  too,  are  abund- 
antly represented  in  Maimonides'  manner  of  writing. 
We  must  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  nothing  perhaps 
is  more  alien  to  Maimonides'  make-up  than  one- 
sidedness.  Maimonides  was  too  much  a  man  of  prac- 
tical wisdom  to  ride  an  abstract  principle  to  death 
and  shut  his  eyes  to  the  innumerable  modifications 
which  no  principle  can  escape  in  its  application  to  the 
needs  of  living  reality.  Just  as  his  system  of  ethics, 
though  permitting  man  to  pursue  only  that  which  is 
useful,  that  which  tends  to  keep  him  sound  in  mind 
and  body,  and  thereby  enables  him  to  devote  himself 
to  metaphysical  speculation,  makes  nevertheless 
provision  for  the  sensations  of  pleasure,  insofar  as  they 


222  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

help  indirectly  to  refresh  and  stimulate  the  thinking 
capacity  of  man, — so  also  Maimonides  as  a  stylist, 
while  limiting  the  function  of  style  to  the  adequate 
transmission  of  thought,  yet  unhesitatingly  resorts 
to  all  the  accessory  stylistic  devices  which  may  in  an 
indirect  manner  lead  to  that  end,  whether  it  be  by 
way  of  illustrating  the  subject  more  concretely,  or 
by  keeping  alive  the  interest  of  the  reader,  and  thereby 
rendering  him  more  susceptible  to  the  ideas  of  the 
writer. 

Among  these  stylistic  devices  one  of  the  most 
important  is  the  use  of  metaphorical  expressions, 
which,  in  a  more  elaborate  form,  appear  as  illustra- 
tions. A  metaphor  or  an  illustration,  being  derived 
from  concrete  reality,  is  far  more  apt  to  bring  an  idea 
nearer  to  the  understanding  of  most  men,  which 
moves  within  the  limits  of  concrete  objects,  than  the 
profoundest  philosophic  argumentations.  Maimo- 
nides therefore  shows  a  special  predilection  for  meta- 
phors and  illustrations,  which  he  handles  with  the 
skill  of  a  master,  and  in  the  use  of  which,  as  is  apparent 
from  many  of  his  utterances,  he  regards  the  biblical 
authors  as  his  unapproachable  models.  A  few 
examples  selected  at  random  from  his  writings — they 
may  be  multiplied  ad  libitum — may  serve  to  illustrate 
our  point.1 


1  It  is  almost  unnecessary  to  add  that  it  is  not  always  certain 
whether  a  given  expression  is  peculiar  to  Maimonides  only,  or 
may  have  been  used  by  other  writers.  In  the  last  analysis, 
however,  this  question  is  irrelevant.  For  the  individuality  of 
an  author  depends  after  all  on  the  manner  in  which  he  utilizes 
the  available  resources  of  the  language. 


MAIMONIDES  AS  A  MASTER  OF  STYLE         223 


Metaphors  :  "He  hurls  the  shafts  of  his  ignorance  at  him" 
(Moreh,  Introduction). — "Their  brains  were  sullied  by  false 
opinions"  (ibidem).- — "A  lamp  which  illumines  the  secret 
recesses  of  this  treatise"  (ibidem). — "This  (the  explanation 
of  the  biblical  anthropomorphisms)  is  a  key  opening  up 
many  places  which  are  barred  by  gates"  (ibidem,  towards  the 
end)1 — "He  should  not  let  loose  the  reins  of  his  speech" 
(Moreh  ii,  .  .  .)• — "Hold  fast  to  this  idea,  for  it  is  a  wall 
which  I  have  built  around  the  faith,  so  that  it  may  encompass 
it  round  about  and  keep  off  the  stones  which  people  hurl 
against  it"  (ibidem,  ii,  17). 

Illustrations.  The  pleasures  in  this  life  and  in  the  life 
hereafter  have  nothing  in  common  with  one  another.  "If 
those  of  us  who  deserve  it  will  have  the  privilege  of  attaining 
this  station  after  death  they  will  in  all  likelihood  be  alto- 
gether incapable  of  appreciating  bodily  pleasures  and  will 
hardly  have  any  desire  for  them,  just  as  little  as  a  mighty 
ruler  would  be  ready  to  renounce  his  throne  and  once  more 
play  ball  on  the  streets,  although  there  was  undoubtedly  a 
time  when  he  preferred  ball  playing  to  ruling"  (Introduction 
to  Perek  Helek). — The  Torah  holds  out  to  those  who  obey 
its  precepts  material  reward  in  the  hereafter,  just  as  a  boy 
whose  elders  wish  to  stimulate  him  in  his  studies  first  promise 
him  sweets  and  then,  as  he  grows  older,  clothes,  money, 
honors,  etc.  (ibidem).2 — Metaphysics  is  the  most  important 
and  the  most  exalted  branch  of  knowledge.  Yet  it  is 
fraught  with  the  gravest  dangers  for  immature  minds,  just 
as  meat  and  wine,  though  substantial  articles  of  food,  are 
dangerous  to  the  suckling  (Moreh,  i,  33). — God  may  be 
described  in  a  vulgar  as  well  as  in  a  refined  way,  just  as  a 
king  may  be  characterized  as  a  venerable  old  man  of  tall 
stature  and  with  a  white  skin,  or  as  a  man  surrounded  by  a 
retinue  of  armed  horsemen,  or  his  power  may  be  described 
in  a  more  subtle  manner  by  pointing  to  a  puny  and  feeble 


1  The  simile  of  door  and  gate  is  used  in  a  similar  connection 
in  many  other  passages  of  Maimonides'  writings. 

"  Another  application  of  the  same  simile  is  quoted  by  Rosin, 
Die  Ethik  des  Maimonides,  p.  60,  Anm.  4. 


224  PAST  AND  PRESENT 


money-changer  standing  before  his  money  table  and  shower- 
ing a  torrent  of  abuse  upon  a  giant  of  a  fellow  who  humbly 
begs  of  him  a  penny  and  who  leaves  quietly  without  making 
use  of  his  superior  strength  (ib.  i,  6). — The  possibility  of 
attaining  to  a  knowledge  of  the  Divine  essence  by  applying 
to  God  negative  attributes  is  illustrated  by  the  manner  in 
which  a  man  who  has  never  seen  a  ship  may  by  mere  denials 
be  afforded  an  approximate  notion  of  its  appearance  (ib.  i, 
60). — The  radical  difference  between  the  knowledge  possessed 
by  God  and  that  possessed  by  man  is  happily  elucidated  by 
a  comparison  with  the  difference  subsisting  between  the 
knowledge  which  an  ordinary  man  may  have  of  a  clock  and 
the  knowledge  of  it  on  the  part  of  the  mechanic,  the  latter 
having  known  it  before  it  came  into  existence  (tb.  iii,  21). 
The  various  stages  in  our  recognition  of  God  are  beautifully 
illustrated  by  the  simile  of  the  king  whose  existence  may  be 
realized  with  ever  increasing  vividness  outside  the  capital, 
within  the  capital,  in  the  royal  palace,  and  finally  in  the 
throne  chamber  (ib.  iii,  51). 

The  effect  of  a  simile  may  be  considerably  strength- 
ened by  the  additional  force  of  contrast.  One  or  two 
examples  will  suffice  to  characterize  this  linguistic 
device,  of  which  Maimonides  is  exceedingly  fond: 

According  to  Aristotle  who  denies  that  Divine  Providence 
extends  to  the  individuals  of  the  human  race,  there  is  no 
difference  whatsoever  between  the  dropping  off  of  a  leaf, 
or  the  falling  down  of  a  stone,  and  the  drowning  of  an  as- 
sembly of  great  and  godly  men  who  happen  to  be  on  a 
wrecked  vessel.  Just  as  little  is  there,  according  to  Aristotle, 
any  difference  between  an  ox  whose  excrements  have  fallen 
on  an  ant  hill,  destroying  the  tiny  animals,  and  a  sacred 
building  which  has  tumbled  down,  burying  the  worshippers 
beneath  its  ruins, — or  between  a  cat,  killing  a  mouse  or  a 
spider  devouring  a  fly1  and  a  lion  who  assaults  and  tears 
a  God-inspired  prophet  (Moreh  iii,  17). — The  Torah  is  in 
every  word  a  revelation  of  God.     There  is  no  difference 

^he  simile  of  the  cat  and  the  spider  recurs  in  Maimonides' 
epistle  to  the  wise  men  of  Marseilles  (Mobetz  ii,  p  25b.) 


MAIMONIDES  AS  A  MASTER  OF  STYLE         225 


between  the  verse  "and  the  sons  of  Ham  are  Cush,  and 
Mizraim,  and  Phut,  and  Canaan,"  (Gen.  x,  16),  or  the  verse 
"and  the  name  of  his  wife  was  Mehetabel,  the  daughter  of 
Matred  (Gen.  xxxvi,  39),  and  the  verses  "I  am  the  Lord  thy 
God  which  have  brought  thee  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt" 
(Ex.  xx,  2)  and  "Hear,  0  Israel,  the  Lord  our  God,  the  Lord 
is  One"  (Deut.  vi,  4. — Introduction  to  Perek  Helek)  l 

It  may  be  seen  from  some  of  the  passages  quoted  in 
the  foregoing  that  Maimonides  is  prone  to  indulge  in 
forceful  language.  Frequently  his  manner  of  ex- 
pression becomes  drastic,  without,  however,  sinking 
to  the  point  of  vulgarity:2 

"Our  work  (the  Commentary  on  the  Mishnah)  is  not 
intended  to  impart  reason  to  stones  but  rather  to  be  intellig- 
ible to  those  who  possess  intelligence"  (Introduction  to  the 
Mishnah). — "The  people  who  believe  in  the  corporeality  of 
God  count  themselves  among  the  wise  men  of  Israel.  Their 
real  place,  however,  is  among  the  most  idiotic  of  men,  and 
they  go  astray  like  the  cattle,  their  brains  being  crammed 
with  the  crazy  notions  of  old  women"  (Kobetzu,  p.  8a). — 
"Do  not  accept  what  the  non-Jewish  fools  and  the  majority 
of  Jewish  blockheads  believe"  (Mishne  Torah,  Hilkhoth 
Teshubah  v,  2). — "Man  has  no  right  to  eat  everything  which 
excites  his  appetite,  like  a  dog  or  an  ass"  {ibidem,  Hilkhoth 
De'oth  iii,  2). — "A  learned  man  when  speaking  should  not 
shout  and  yell  like  animals  and  wild  beasts"  {ibidem  v,  7). 


Concerning   the   last   quoted  verses  compare   also  above' 
p.  185  and  p.  196. 

2  This  alone  would  suffice  to  brand  as  a  bold  forgery  the 
so-called  Testament  of  Maimonides  addressed  to  his  son  which 
contains  the  following  tactless  harangue:  "They  (the  Jewish 
scholars  of  France)  recognize  God  while  they  are  enjoying  boiled 
beef  spiced  with  vinaigre  and  garlick,  so  that  the  odor  of  the 
vinaigre  and  the  steam  (sic!)  of  the  garlick  penetrates  their 
brain  and  they  actually  believe  that  they  are  thus  able  to  rec- 
ognize God  at  all  times." — Compare  Bacher,  Die  Bibelexegese  des 
Maimonides,  p.  19. 


226  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

One  of  the  stylistic  contrivances  which,  on  account 
of  its  invigorating  effect  upon  the  reader,  never  fails 
to  stimulate  his  interest  and  susceptibility  is  wit. 
Maimonides  frequently  resorts  to  wit  which,  however, 
in  his  case,  as  in  the  case  of  most  Jews,  does  not  mani- 
fest itself  in  the  form  of  humor,  the  latter  being  in 
its  very  nature  purposeless,  or,  as  Kant  would  say, 
disinterested,  but  rather  in  the  shape  of  sarcasm 
which  is  never  altogether  devoid  of  a  moral  tinge. 
Frequently  the  effect  of  Maimonides'  sarcasm  is 
heightened  by  the  quotation  of  biblical  (and  occasion- 
ally talmudic)  phrases,1  for  the  reason  that  a  quota- 
tion which  is  familiar  to  the  reader  is  able  to  release 
automatically  a  whole  string  of  associations  and, 
because  of  this  saving  of  energy,  produces  both  a 
stronger  and  quicker  impression : 

The  predecessors  of  Maimonides  who  had  made  the  at- 
tempt to  enumerate  the  six  hundred  and  thirteen  biblical 
commandments  had  proceeded  without  any  definite  under- 
lying principle:  they  mount  up  to  heaven:  they  go  down  to  the 
deeps  (Psalm  cvii,  26. — Sefer  ha-Mitzwoth,  ed.  Bloch,  p.  51). — 
The  resurrection  of  the  dead  is  confined  to  the  pious.  How, 
indeed,  should  the  wicked  rise  to  life  again,  they  who  are 
dead  while  still  alive?!"  (Introduction  to  Perek  Helek). — 2 
Those  Jews  who  take  the  utterances  of  the  Talmudic  sages 
in  their  literal  sense  and  thus  put  into  their  mouths  all 
kinds  of  absurdities  make  a  travesty  of  the  Divine  promise 
to  Israel :  'This  is  your  wisdom  and  understanding  in  the  sight 
of  the  peoples  that,  when  they  hear  all  these  statutes,  shall 

1  They  are  generally  quoted  by  Maimonides  in  the  original 
Hebrew,  even  though  the  language  of  the  particular  work  be 
Arabic. 

2  Allusion  to  the  well-known  Talmudic  saying,  according  to 
which  the  wicked  are  called  dead  during  their  life-time. 


MAIMONIDES  AS  A  MASTER  OF  STYLE         227 

say:  Surely  this  great  nation  is  a  wise  and  understanding 
people'  (Deut.  iv,  6).  For  were  non-Jews  to  learn  what  those 
Jewsascribe  to  their  own  sages.they  would  exclaim: 'Surely  this 
small  nation  is  a  foolish  and  unenlightened  people'  (ibidem).1 
— Those  who  sin  most  in  that  direction  are  the  preachers2 
who  try  to  make  people  understand  what  they  themselves 
are  incapable  of  understanding.  Now  being  devoid  of 
understanding,  the  least  they  could  do  would  be  to  keep 
silent.  Oh  that  ye  would  altogether  hold  your  peace,  and  it 
would  be  your  wisdoml  (Job  xiii,  5. — Ibidem)3 — He  who  is  in 
a  position  to  save  his  life  by  fleeing  from  the  power  of  a 
despotic  ruler  and  fails  to  do  so  is  to  be  likened  to  a  dog  that 
returneth  to  his  vomit  (Proverbs  xxvi,  2. — Mishne  Torah, 
Hilkhoth  Yesode  ha-Torah,  v,  5.) 

One  of  the  characteristic  features  of  Maimonides' 
style  which  at  first  sight  seems  to  contradict  his 
entire  way  of  thinking  but  as  an  indirect  means  of 
stimulating  the  reader  and  thereby  keeping  his  at- 
tention retains  its  justification  is  the  use  of  rhymed 
word-pairs.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  point  out 
that  phonetic  word  combinations  of  this  kind,  which 
are  to  be  found  in  every  language,  often  become 
common  property  and  therefore  lay  no  claim  to 
individual  ownership.  Nevertheless,  the  frequency 
with  which  they  are  to  be  found  in  Maimonides' 
writings  entitles  us  to  regard  them  as  a  specific  trait 
of  Maimonides'  literary  expression.  Out  of  the  vast 
amount  of  the  available  material  the  following  few 
examples  may  be  quoted, — all  of  them  gathered  from 
Maimonides'  Arabic  writings: 

1  The   play   on   words   is  even   more   striking    in   Hebrew: 

rak  'am  sakhal  we-nabal  ha-goy  ha-katan  ha-zeh,  instead  of  the 
biblical  words  rak  'am  hakham  we-nabcn  ha-goy  ha-gadol  ha-zeh. 

2  Attacks  upon  the  Darshanim,  or  preachers,  are  found  else- 
where in  Maimonides'  writings;  compare  Kobetz  ii,  p.  31b. 

3  The  same  verse  is  similarly  used  Kobetz  ii,  p.  9b. 


228  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

ghayatuha  wa-nihayatuha  "Their  aim  and  end,"  Moreh  i,  4a; 
ii,  42b,  73a;  iii,  47a,  etc. — al-gharib  al-'ajib  "strange  and 
wonderful,"  ib.  i,  91b;  ii,  92a;  iii,  44b;  78a,  etc. — yakutf 
wa-yakif  "he  holds  back  and  stands  still,"  ib.  i,  16a;  36a. — 
af'aluhu  wa-akwaluhu  "his  words  and  deeds,"  ib.  i,  15b- 
Sefer  Ha-mitzwoth,  ed.  Bloch,  p.  142. — la  bt-tas-rih  wa-la 
bi-talwih  "neither  expressly  nor  allulsively,"  Moreh  ii,  76b; 
iii,  11a. — at-takdir  wa't-tadbir  "the  estimate  and  arrange- 
ment," ib.  iii,  74b;  95b. — ta'limuhu  wa-tafhimuhu"  to  make 
him  know  and  understand,"  ib.  iii,  2a. — li'l-jahil  wa'd-dahil 
"to  the  ignorant  and  thoughtless,"  ib.  i,  3a. — at-ta'addud 
wa't-tajaddud  "preparation  and  regeneration,"  ib.  iii,  44a. — 
as-salih  wa't-lalih  "the  pious  and  wicked,"  ib.  iii,  48a. — 
al-barara  wa'ssahara  "the  deserts  and  wildernesses,"  ib. 
iii,  60a. 

We  are  thus  in  a  position  to  witness  the  process  by 
which  the  style  of  Maimonides,  though  orginally 
conceived  of  as  a  mere  vehicle  for  the  correct  trans- 
mission of  ideas  and  therefore  denied  all  considera- 
tion beyond  that  immediate  purpose,  imperceptibly 
grew  in  importance  and  independence  and  ultimately 
attained  not  only  to  lucidity,  which  is  an  indispensable 
requirement,  but  also  to  beauty,  which  may  easily 
be  dispensed  with.  Maimonides'  style  is  not  only 
wonderfully  translucent;  it  is  at  the  same  time  ex- 
traordinarily forceful,  plastic  and  fluent,  frequently 
carrying  along  the  reader  in  its  flow,  yet  graceful  and 
balanced.  In  this  manner  the  style  of  Maimonides, 
without  his  noticing  it,  and  certainly  without  his 
wishing  it,  reached  that  perfection  and  elegance 
which  fascinates  the  modern  reader  of  Maimonides* 
writings  even  there  where  their  philosophic  content, 
the  product  of  a  glorious  but  antiquated  culture, 
is  of  itself    unable  to  command  his  interest. 


XIII 
THE  PROBLEM  OF  POLISH  JEWRY* 

THE  expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  Spain  in  1492 
transferred  the  center  of  Judaism  from  the 
Iberian  peninsula  to  the  ancient  Empire  of  Poland. 
For  nearly  five  hundred  years  Poland,  using  this  term 
in  its  old  geographic  connotation,  has  harbored  the 
bulk  of  the  Jewish  people  and  has  been  the  seat  of 
its  spiritual  leadership.  Protected  by  the  Polish 
kings,  the  Jews  of  Poland  not  only  became  a  vital 
factor  in  the  economic  development  of  the  country, 
but  they  were  also  able  to  evolve  a  culture  of  their 
own  which  has  added  a  glorious  page  to  the  annals  of  the 
Jewish  people  With  the  emigration  of  the  Jews  from 
Polish  territory,  due  to  persecution  and  discrimination 
on  the  part  of  its  later  masters,  the  influence  of 
Polish-Jewish  culture  spread  to  other  Jewries  beyond 
the  confines  of  Poland  and  even  those  of  Europe. 
In  happier  climes,  in  the  warming  sunshine  of  liberty, 
Polish-Jewish  culture,  brought  into  contact  with 
modern  life,  has  grown  into  a  valuable  factor  in  the 
spiritual  progress  of  humanity. 

The   problem   of   Polish    Jewry   has   not   only   an 
economic  and  political,  but  also  an  essentially  cultural 

*First  published  in  the  New  York  Times  Magazine,  January 
14,  1917.  Some  aspects  of  the  Polish-Jewish  question  are  dis- 
cussed at  greater  length  in  my  book  "The  Jews  of  Russia  and 
Poland.  A  Bird's-eye  View  of  Their  History  and  Culture." 
New  York,  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  1916. 


230  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

aspect.  It  is  not  my  intention  here  to  deal  with  the 
former  phase  of  the  problem.  The  tragic  paradox  of  a 
people,  naturally  gifted  and  industrious,  reduced  by 
artificial  discrimination  to  unspeakable  economic 
misery,  contains  in  itself  the  solution  of  the  problem. 
In  the  following  I  shall  attempt  to  point  out  briefly 
the  more  complicated,  because  less  tangible,  cultural 
bearings  of  the  problem  of  Polish  Jewry. 

The  roots  of  this  problem  lie  deep  down  in  history. 
The  Jews  are  to  be  found  among  the  earliest  inhabit- 
ants of  Poland.  The  ancient  Polish  sagas  presuppose 
the  existence  of  Jews  in  pre-historic  Poland;  a  Jew,  by 
the  name  of  Abraham  Prokhovnik,  is  mentioned  as 
having  been  offered  the  Polish  crown,  which  he  declined 
in  favor  of  the  wise  Piast,  the  legendary  progenitor  of 
the  Piast  dynasty.  The  origin  of  these  early  Jewish 
settlers  is  still  the  subject  of  scientific  dispute.  Cer- 
tain it  is  that  this  ancient  Jewish  element,  which  had 
possibly  come  from  the  East,  was  followed,  beginning 
with  the  eleventh  century,  by  a  larger  influx  from 
the  West,  notably  from  Germany  and  the  adjoining 
countries,  which  decided  the  character  of  Polish 
Jewry  and  made  it  the  leader  of  the  Jews  of  Western 
Kurope. 

The  cultural  development  of  Polish  Jewry  was 
determined  by  the  peculiar  social  and  economic 
structure  of  Poland.  From  the  beginning  until  the 
end  of  her  political  existence  Poland  was  a  country  of 
estates,  sharply  divided  from  one  another  in  their 
interests  and  aspirations.  In  its  primitive,  purely 
agricultural  stage  Poland  possessed  but  two  estates, 
the  nobles  who  owned  the  soil,  and  the  serfs  who  tilled 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POLISH  JEWRY  231 

the  soil  for  their  noble  masters.  It  was  sadly  in  need 
of  a  middle  class  to  introduce  and  cultivate  commerce 
and  handicrafts.  Realizing  this  need,  the  rulers  of 
Poland  opened  the  gates  of  their  country  to  the 
neighboring  Germans,  who  came  in  large  numbers 
and  soon  formed  the  backbone  of  the  urban  popula- 
tion. In  conformity  with  the  structure  of  the 
Polish  state,  they  were  segregated  into  a  separate 
class,  the  estate  of  burghers  or  oppidani,  and  were 
granted  the  so-called  Magdeburg  Law,  vouchsafing 
to  them  complete-  administrative  and  cultural  auton- 
omy within  the  municipalities  founded  or  populated 
by  them.  The  German  settlers  retained  for  several 
centuries  their  national  distinctiveness.  They  yielded 
but  slowly  to  the  process  of  Polonization,  leaving 
deep  traces  in  the  language  and  civilization  of  Poland. 
The  same  rulers  who  invited  the  Germans  into 
their  territories  welcomed  also  the  advent  of  the  Jews. 
Driven  by  inhuman  persecution  and  attracted  by  the 
prospect  of  a  peaceful  existence,  the  Jews  of  Germany 
and  adjacent  lands  fled  to  Poland  as  a  haven  of  refuge. 
They  brought  thither  the  remnants  of  their  wealth 
left  to  them  by  their  persecutors,  and  with  this  wealth 
their  commercial  and  financial  genius  which  soon 
made  them  a  vital  factor  in  the  economic  develop- 
ment of  the  new  land.  Shut  out  by  their  occupation 
from  the  older  two  estates  of  the  nobles  and  serfs,  and 
by  their  religion  from  the  rising  third  estate  of  the 
burghers,  the  Jews  of  Poland  were  segregated  into  an 
estate  of  their  own,  and  granted  by  the  Polish  rulers, 
who  valued  their  services  highly,  an  autonomous 
organization,  similar  in  character  and  extent  to  that 
of  the  German  oppidani. 


232  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

The  beginnings  of  this  autonomy  may  be  traced 
as  far  back  as  1264,  when  Prince  Boleslav  of  Kalish 
conferred  his  famous  statute  of  privileges  upon  the 
Jews  of  his  principality.  It  was  completed  by  the 
decree  of  King  Sigismund  Augustus  issued  on  August 
13,  1551,  which  bestowed  upon  the  Jewish  Community, 
the  Kahal,  or  Kehilla,  the  character  of  an  independent 
municipal  body,  discharging  not  only  religious  and 
cultural  but  also  fiscal,  administrative  and  judicial 
functions.  For  a  variety  of  reasons,  which  need  not 
detain  us  here,  the  kings  of  Poland  no  less  than  the 
Jews  were  anxious  to  preserve  the  autonomous  separ- 
ateness  of  the  Jewish  Community.  They  frowned 
upon  the  attempts  of  some  Jews  to  appeal  to  the 
jurisdiction  of  non-Jewish  law  courts,  and  they 
placed  the  arm  of  the  State  at  the  disposal  of  the 
Kahal,  to  the  point  of  granting  it  the  right  of  pass- 
ing the  death  sentence  upon  its  recalcitrant  members. 

On  the  substructure  of  the  autonomy  of  the  Kahal, 
or  the  individual  Jewish  Community,  there  gradually 
arose  a  widely  ramified  Jewish  organization,  capped 
by  the  Council  of  the  Four  Lands  (Wa'ad  'Arba 
Aratzoth),  which  comprised  the  four  great  provinces 
of  Poland  and  was  recognized  by  the  authorities  as  the 
supreme  representation  of  Polish  Jewry,  under  the 
official  title  Congressus  Judaicus,  or  the  Jewish  Diet. 

This  elaborate  scheme  of  Jewish  self-government 
continued  practically  until  the  end  of  the  Polish 
Commonwealth.  The  Council  of  the  Four  Lands  was 
dissolved  in  1764,  only  eight  years  before  the  first 
partition  of  Poland.  The  Kahal,  or  the  individual 
Jewish  Community,  survived  a  little  longer.     It  was 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POLISH  JEWRY  233 

abolished  in  the  Kingdom  of  Poland,  which  corres- 
ponds to  present  day  Russian  Poland,  in  1822,  and  in 
the  other  Polish  provinces  (Lithuania,  Volhynia, 
Podolia,  etc.),  which  were  variously  annexed  by 
Russia,  in  1844.  The  vast  self-government  of  the 
Kahal  was  reduced  to  the  narrow  range  of  the  purely 
congregational  affairs  of  Jewry. 

This  century-long  development  as  an  autonomous 
group,  coupled  with  its  involuntary  segregation  from 
the  rest  of  the  population,  laid  its  indelible  impress 
upon  the  character  of  Polish  Jewry.  It  was  respons- 
ible, on  the  one  hand,  for  the  extraordinary  intensity 
of  Jewish  cultural  life,  and  for  its  entire  isolation  from 
the  spiritual  life  of  Poland,  on  the  other.  The  inten- 
sity of  Polish-Jewish  culture  finds  few  parallels  in  the 
history  of  Judaism  or,  for  that  matter,  in  the  annals 
of  humanity.  Excluded  by  the  hatred  of  the  Church 
and  by  the  contempt  and  jealousy  of  the  nobles  and 
burghers,  from  all  participation  in  the  affairs  of  the 
country,  the  Jews  of  Poland  fell  back  upon  their  own 
spiritual  resources  and  concentrated  the  pent-up 
mental  and  moral  energy  of  the  ages  on  the  cultiva- 
tion of  their  religious  and  cultural  heritage.  The 
official  recognition  of  Talmudic  law  as  the  basis 
of  Jewish  self-government,  paralleled  by  the  position 
of  the  Madgeburg  law  in  the  municipal  autonomy 
of  the  German  burghers,  turned  the  spiritual  endeav- 
ors of  Polish  Jewry  in  the  direction  of  the  immense 
Rabbinical  literature  of  Judaism,  stamping  itself 
permanently  upon  the  mentality  of  the  Jews  of 
Poland.  The  loss  in  expansion  was  made  up  by  the 
increased  intensity  of  the  cultural  life  of  Polish  Jewry. 


234  PAST  AND  PRESENT 


It  is  difficult  to  convey  to  the  outsider  the  extra- 
ordinary intensity  of  this  life.  Suffice  it  to  say  that 
in  the  midst  of  a  population  in  which  only  the  priests 
and  the  nobles  possessed  the  elements  of  culture  the 
Jews  of  Poland  stood  forth  as  a  community  of  students 
and  scholars.  Illiteracy  was  entirely  unknown,  and, 
to  quote  the  evidence  of  a  seventeenth  century 
chronicler,  many  a  Polish-Jewish  community,  num- 
bering fifty  members,  could  boast  of  thirty  men  hold- 
ing the  title  Morenu,  a  distinction  corresponding  in  the 
amount  of  erudition  presupposed  by  it  somewhat  to  a 
modern  University  degree.  This  intellectualism, 
tempered  with  a  goodly  dose  of  mysticism,  forms  the 
most  striking  characteristic  of  Polish-Jewish  culture. 
It  is  still  conspicuous  today  wherever  the  Polish 
Jews  are  offered  the  chance  of  a  free  human  existence. 

However,  owing  to  political  and  social  ostracism, 
the  intensity  of  Polish-Jewish  culture  was  marked  and 
marred  by  an  excessive  one-sidedness  and  a  complete 
aloofness  from  the  life  and  thought  of  the  outside 
world.  We  realize  this  best  when  we  compare  the 
development  of  Polish  Jewry  with  that  of  its  prede- 
cessor in  the  hegemony  of  the  Jewish  people,  the 
Jewry  of  Spain.  While  the  Jews  living  under  Moorish 
rule,  though  staunch  in  their  adherence  to  their  Jewish 
heritage,  were  a  powerful  cultural  factor  in  the  life 
of  their  neighbors  and  transmitted  Moorish  culture  to 
modern  Europe,  the  Jews  of  Poland  remained  outside 
the  range  of  Polish  as  well  as  of  general  human 
progress.  To  be  sure,  there  is  ample  evidence  to  show 
that  in  an  earlier  age  the  Jews  of  Poland  were  far 
from  being  as  spiritually  self-centered  as  they  became 


THE  PROBLEM  OF   POLISH  JEWRY  235 

afterwards.  To  quote  but  one  or  two  examples  out 
of  many,  in  the  sixteenth  century  we  find  a  number 
of  Polish  Jews  enrolled  as  students  in  the  University 
of  Padua,  and  in  the  following  century  there  were 
so  many  Jews  in  the  medical  fraternity  of  Poland  that 
in  1623  an  envious  Christian  physician  found  it 
necessary  to  issue  a  special  publication  in  which  he 
vented  his  spite  on  his  Jewish  colleagues.  But  the 
hostility  of  the  Polish  Church  which  preached  that  the 
Jews  were  suffered  to  exist  "for  the  sole  purpose  of 
recalling  to  our  minds  the  tortures  of  our  Saviour," 
the  contempt  of  the  nobles  who  used  the  Jews  as 
sponges  to  suck  up  the  toil  of  their  serfs,  the  hatred 
of  these  very  serfs  who  looked  upon  them  as  the  direct 
instruments  of  their  oppressors,  the  envy  of  the 
burghers  who  saw  in  the  Jews  dangerous  rivals,  left 
no  choice  to  the  Jews  except  to  withdraw  into  their 
own  shell  and  to  foster  the  spirit  of  aloofness  and 
clannishness  which  has  made  Polish  Jewry  an  element 
distinct  in  its  thoughts  and  habits  from  the  rest  of 
the  population. 

It  would  lead  us  too  far  afield  to  dwell  on  the 
many  aspects  of  this  unfortunate  concomitant  to  an 
otherwise  truly  unique  cultural  phenomenon.  It 
will  be  sufficient  to  point  out  two  characteristic  feat- 
ures of  this  Polish-Jewish  exclusiveness,  which  down 
to  this  day  are  regarded  by  many  as  the  principal 
difficulties  of  the  Polish-Jewish  problem, — I  refer  to 
the  distinctiveness  of  the  Jewish  population  of  Poland 
in  dress  and  language. 

The  Jewish  religion  which,  in  its  desire  to  secure  the 
survival  of  the  Jewish  people  in  the  midst  of  an  over- 


236  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

whelming  majority,  has  endeavored  in  every  possible 
way  to  preserve  the  distinctiveness  of  the  Jews,  takes 
at  the  same  time  full  cognizance  of  the  existence  of 
constant  and  unavoidable  relations  between  them  and 
the  non-Jewish  world  and  has,  therefore,  refrained 
from  legislating  concerning  the  Jewish  form  of  dress. 
This  is  seen  nowhere  more  clearly  than  in  Poland  itself. 
For  the  peculiar  attire  which  is  still  worn  by  the 
masses  of  Polish  Jewry  and  is  an  eyesore  to  the 
Poles  is  nothing  but  the  ancient  Polish  national 
costume  which  the  Poles  themselves  subsequently 
discarded  in  favor  of  a  more  modern  form  of  dress. 
The  characteristic  pieces  of  the  traditional  Polish- 
Jewish  costume  are  still  known  by  their  ancient 
Polish  names,  and  the  peculiar  fur  cap,  the  so-called 
Shtraimel,  which  is  regarded  today  as  an  unmistakable 
token  of  Jewish  orthodoxy,  can  be  shown  to  have  been 
worn  at  one  time  by  the  Christian  clergy  of  Poland. 
But  the  Church  no  less  than  the  nobles  were  bitterly 
opposed  to  this  similarity  of  external  appearance 
between  the  Jews  and  the  Christians.  A  number  of 
enactments  passed  by  the  former  at  its  Synods  and 
by  the  latter  in  their  Diets  compelled  the  Jews  to 
yield  on  this  point  and  to  adopt,  or,  rather,  to  retain, 
their  distinct  form  of  dress.  In  the  course  of  time 
the  antiquarian  costume  of  the  Jews  became  sur- 
rounded in  their  eyes  with  the  halo  of  religious 
sanction,  and  when  in  the  nineteenth  century  the 
Polish  government  in  the  truncated  Kingdom  of 
Poland  and  the  Russian  Government  in  the  Polish 
provinces  occupied  by  it  demanded,  with  a  sudden 
turn  of  policy,  a  change  of  dress  on  the  part  of  the 


THE  PROBLE       OF  POLISH  JEWRY  237 

Jews  they  met  with  a  stubborn  refusal.  The  acci- 
dental character  of  this  external  factor  in  the  life  of 
Polish  Jewry  may  be  gauged  from  the  fact  that  the 
same  Polish  Jews,  when  settling  in  other  countries 
where  they  are  allowed  to  follow  their  natural  in- 
clinations, lose  no  time  in  ridding  themselves  of  this 
historic  sign  of  discrimination  foisted  upon  them  by 
the  prejudices  of  their  neighbors. 

The  same  applies  to  a  more  important,  perhaps  the 
most  important,  aspect  of  the  Polish-Jewish  problem, 
the  peculiar  vernacular  which  the  Polish  Jews  brought 
with  them  centuries  ago  from  their  German  home- 
lands and,  in  their  overwhelming  majority,  continue 
to  speak  until  today.  Ever  since  their  dispersion 
the  Jews  have  been  a  bilingual  people.  While  re- 
maining faithful  to  their  ancient  national  tongue,  the 
Hebrew,  as  the  vehicle  of  their  religious  and  spiritual 
self-expression,  the  Jews  have  always  spoken  the 
language  of  the  nation  in  whose  midst  they  dwelled. 
There  is  scarcely  a  language  of  civilized  humanity 
which  at  one  time  or  another  was  not  used  by  the 
Jews  as  their  vernacular. 

The  same  is  true  of  Poland.  According  to  a  theory 
held  by  many  prominent  authorities,  the  Jews  of 
early  Poland  spoke  a  Slavonian  dialect,  and  there  are 
traces  of  literary  use  of  the  Polish  language  by- 
Jews  in  the  sixteenth  century  and  later.  The  re- 
sponsibility for  the  preservation  of  the  ancient  German 
dialect  in  the  midst  of  the  Polish  environment  does 
not  rest  with  the  Jews. 

Two  factors,  a  positive  and  a  negative  one,  account 
for  this  peculiar  linguistic  survival.     The  policy  of 


238  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

isolation  ruthlessly  pursued  by  the  Polish  estates 
acted  as  a  positive  encouragement  to  the  Jews  to 
retain  and  cultivate  their  accustomed  speech.  No 
less  important  was  the  negative  factor,  the  lack  of  a 
strong  linguistic  pressure  from  the  outside.  The 
Polish  language  reached  the  maturity  of  a  national 
and  cultural  factor  at  a  comparatively  late  date  in  the 
development  of  the  Polish  people.  For  a  long  time 
German  remained  the  language  of  the  burgher  class 
and  was  spoken  in  their  churches  and  law  courts. 
And  even  among  the  other  estates  it  was  not  Polish 
but  Latin  which,  during  the  greater  part  of  Polish 
history,  served  as  the  medium  of  cultural  life.  In 
the  sixteenth  century,  to  quote  the  words  of  a  con- 
temporary, there  were  "more  Latinists  in  Poland  than 
there  used  to  be  in  Latium,"  and  the  English  historian 
William  Coxe  who  visited  Poland  about  1784  com- 
ments on  the  prevalence  of  Latin  in  Poland  and  tells 
us  of  a  common  soldier  who  conversed  with  great 
fluency  in  that  language.  Thus  it  was  unavoidable 
that,  in  contradiction  with  their  general  historic  habits, 
the  Jews  of  Poland  should  have  retained  a  foreign 
dialect  which,  in  other  circumstances,  the  memory  of 
German  persecution  alone  would  have  prompted 
them  to  exchange  for  the  language  of  their  adopted 
country. 

This  dialect  which  gradually  developed  into  an  inde- 
pendent tongue  now  generally  designated  as  Yiddish 
was  till  comparatively  recent  times  mainly  confined 
to  the  role  of  a  vernacular,  while  the  functions  of  a 
literary  medium  of  expression  were  monopolized  by 
Hebrew.  Towards  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
owing  to  a  variety  of  factors  which  it  would  lead  us 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POLISH  JEWRY  239 

too  far  afield  to  discuss  in  this  connection,  the  Yiddish 
dialect  was  raised  to  the  dignity  of  a  literary  language 
and  in  a  short  time  found  its  masters,  such  as  Mendele 
Mokher  Sforim,  Sholom  Aleichem,  Peretz,  and  a  host 
of  others,  who  may  well  compare  with  the  leading 
exponents  of  European  literature.  The  Yiddish 
press  sprang  up  and  became  a  powerful  civilizing 
agency  among  the  Jews  of  Poland.  The  extent  of  its 
influence  may  be  gathered  from  the  fact,  which, 
curiously  enough  is  pointed  out  reproachfully  by  the 
Poles,  that  the  leading  Yiddish  newspaper  of  Warsaw 
commanded  but  a  few  years  ago  a  larger  circulation 
than  that  of  all  the  Polish  newspapers  combined. 
Here  again  the  true  place  of  Yiddish  in  the  life  of  the 
Jews,  which  among  the  masses  of  Polish  Jewry  has  as- 
sumed a  semi-religious  character,  may  be  illustrated 
by  the  attitude  of  the  Polish  Jews  who  settle  outside 
of  Poland.  To  quote  an  example  near  at  hand,  the 
Polish-Jewish  immigrants  in  this  free  land,  while 
naturally  loving  the  language  in  which  for  more 
than  six  hundred  years  they  have  enshrined  their 
woes  and  joys,  and  while  retaining  it  as  a  convenient 
medium  of  expression,  are  eager,  probably  to  a  greater 
extent  than  any  other  section  of  foreigners,  to  adopt 
the  language  of  the  new  environment.  The  sons  of 
these  immigrants  employ  and  regard  the  English 
language  as  the  exclusive  vehicle  of  their  daily  and 
literary  expression. 

The  existence  on  Po'ish  territory  of  an  element 
distinct  in  its  culture  and  mode  of  life,  forming  14  per 
cent  of  the  total  population  and  more  than  50  per  cent 
of  the  urban  population,  presents  undoubtedly  a 
problem  of  serious  magnitude.      It  is  a  problem  not 


240  PAST  AND  PRESENT 


only  for  the  Poles  who  are  approaching  the  realization 
of  their  national  and  cultural  aspirations,  but  also 
for  the  Polish  Jews  who  feel  themselves  part  and 
parcel  of  the  country  in  which  they  have  lived  and 
developed  from  the  very  dawn  of  its  history,  and  who 
yet  have  the  legitimate  desire  to  preserve  their  an- 
cient cultural  possessions.  The  problem  cannot  be 
solved  by  brutal  force  and  by  the  destruction  of  old 
cultural  values.  It  can  only  be  solved  by  mutual 
sympathy  and  toleration,  and  by  a  sincere  desire  for 
an  equitable  adjustment.  Such  an  adjustment  is 
bound  to  be  reached  when  both  sides,  discarding  the 
prejudice  and  mistrust  of  a  sad  past,  will  strive  for  it 
in  the  spirit  of  equality  and  fraternity. 

The  great  Polish  poet  Adam  Mickiewicz  spoke  of 
the  Poles  and  the  Jews  as  the  two  martyr  nations 
which  resembled  one  another  in  the  intensity  of 
their  past  sufferings  and  the  brightness  of  their  future 
prospects,  and  he  passionately  appealed  to  his  fellow- 
Poles  to  work  shoulder  to  shoulder  with  "Israel,  the 
elder  brother,"  for  the  consummation  of  their  common 
destiny.  The  Jews  of  Poland,  despite  all  discrimina- 
tion and  isolation,  have  always  been  faithful  citizens 
of  the  land  which  sheltered  them  and  the  best  they 
possessed  for  so  many  centuries;  they  have  fought 
side  by  side  with  the  Poles  in  the  many  sad  crises 
of  modern  Polish  history.  "Israel,  the  elder  brother," 
is  ready  to  consecrate  the  best  that  is  in  him  to  the 
upbuilding  of  a  free  and  happy  Poland.  And  Polish 
Jewry  can  only  give  its  best  when  it  will  give  its 
whole  natural  and  histoiic  strength,  and  not  merely  a 
soulless  and  lifeless  reflection  of  its  real  self. 


XIV 
THE  PRESENT  JEWISH  OUTLOOK  IN  RUSSIA.* 

THE  Russian  revolution  marks  a  new  era  in  the 
history  of  Russian  Jewry.  It  is  a  revolution  in 
the  literal  sense  of  the  word,  an  overturning  of  its 
former  conditions  of  life,  not  only  in  the  concrete 
domain  of  political  and  economic  interests,  but  also  in 
the  loftier  sphere  of  spiritual  and  cultural  develop- 
ment. Whatever  the  course  of  general  Russian  events 
may  prove  to  be,  Russian  Jewry  can  never  be  what 
it  has  been  hitherto.  It  is  not  my  intention  to  engage 
in  hazardous  predictions  about  the  future  of  Russia, 
with  which  the  destinies  of  Russian  Jewry  are  in- 
timately bound  up.  Only  arrogance  or  ignorance  can 
claim  to  penetrate  the  heavy  mist  which  clouds  the 
titanic  upward  struggle  of  the  Russian  people  from 
the  lowest  depths  of  slavery  to  the  summits  of  liberty. 
I  shall  confine  myself  to  the  discussion  of  one  aspect  of 
this  tremendous  spectacle:  the  effect  of  the  Russian 
revolution  upon  the  inner  development  of  Russian 
Jewry.  Will  the  emancipation  of  Russian  Jewry 
strengthen  or  weaken  the  immense  resources  of  Jewish 
energy  and  loyalty  which  have  been  stored  up  in  it  in 
the  course  of  centuries?  It  is  a  question  which  is 
fraught  with  incalculable  consequences  for  the  entire 
Jewish  people.  For  the  Jews  all  over  the  world  draw 
directly  or  indirectly  upon  the  vast  reservoir  of 
Jewish  strength  in  the  former  empire  of  the  Czars. 
*Published  in  the  Jewish  Forum  for  February,  1918. 


242  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

The  gravity  of  the  Russian-Jewish  situation  must 
be  patent  to  everyone  who  is  acquainted  with  the 
history  of  Jewish  emancipation  in  other  countries. 
The  student  of  the  Jewish  past,  who  is  able  to  divest 
himself  of  partisan  bias,  and  who  is  courageous  enough 
to  look  facts  squarely  in  the  face,  cannot  deny  that, 
from  the  point  of  view  of  Jewish  spiritual  life,  Jewish 
emancipation  in  the  West  of  Europe  has  proved  a  flat 
failure.  True,  the  emancipation  has  released  the 
pent-up  energies  of  the  Jews,  but  it  has  also  diverted 
them  into  channels  that  lead  away  from  Judaism.  It 
has  benefited  the  Jews  as  individuals;  it  has  affected 
disastrously  the  Jews  as  a  group.  It  has  dried  up  the 
springs  of  Jewish  thinking  and  living, — and  if  Juda- 
ism still  manages  to  hold  its  own  it  is  only  because 
it  has  been  able  to  draw  upon  the  resources  of  the 
Jewries  which  have  not  yet  been  emancipated.  It 
has  stricken  the  Jewish  mind  with  sterility  and  has 
failed  to  produce  genuine  Jewish  values.  Even  the 
so-called  "Science  of  Judaism,"  which  no  doubt 
derived  its  stimulus  from  the  contact  of  Judaism  with 
the  culture  of  the  environment,  owes  its  origin  to  men, 
who,  like  Zunz,  Geiger  and  Rapoport,  were  born  and 
bred  in  old-fashioned  non-emancipated  Jewish  sur- 
roundings; and  after  a  generation  or  two  of  notable 
achievements,  it  now  depends  to  an  overwhelming 
extent  upon  the  contributions  of  Jewish  scholars  who 
hail  from  Eastern  Europe.  We  are,  therefore,  justi- 
fied in  asking  ourselves,  and  asking  ourselves  with  an 
anxious  mind,  whether  Russian-Jewish  emancipation 
will    follow    the    course    of    Jewish    emancipation    in 


THE  PRESENT  JEWISH  OUTLOOK  IN  RUSSIA     243 

Western  Europe,  and  whether  it  is  likely  to  lead  to 
the  same  disastrous  consequences  of  de-Judaization. 
This  anxiety  is  perhaps  more  warranted  in  the  case 
of  Russian  Jewry  than  it  was  in  the  case  of  the  Jews 
of  Western  Europe.  For  in  Western  Europe  emanci- 
pation was  a  slow  process  which  took  many  decades 
to  mature,  and  even  when  it  was  finally  embodied 
in  the  constitutions  of  the  Western  European  nations 
it  often  proved  a  scrap  of  paper,  leaving  full  scope 
for  anti-Jewish  discrimination.  In  Russia,  however, 
the  emancipation  of  the  Jews  came  at  one  stroke, 
like  the  breaking  forth  of  the  sun  from  beneath  a 
black  cloud.  And  with  the  radical  tendency  and  the 
love  of  liberty  which  are  characteristic  of  the  Russian 
people,  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  the 
emancipation  of  the  Jews  will  not  remain  on  paper 
but  will  be  lived  up  to  in  the  letter  as  well  as  in  the 
spirit.  Moreover,  the  opportunities  offered  to  the 
Jews  in  the  midst  of  a  population  of  170,000,000,  and 
on  a  territory  which  comprises  one-sixth  of  the  surface 
of  the  globe,  are  infinitely  greater  than  those  that 
have  ever  smiled  upon  the  Jews  of  a  Western  Euro- 
pean country.  The  chances  held  out  by  a  new  and 
free  Russia,  whether  they  be  economic,  political,  social 
or  cultural,  are  bound  to  cast  a  fascinating  spell  upon 
the  Russian  Jews  who  have,  for  more  than  a  century, 
been  held  down  by  the  iron  grip  of  Czardom.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  even  under  the  autocratic  regime,  many 
Jews  of  Russia,  defying  the  numberless  obstacles  and 
difficulties  placed  in  their  path  by  Russian  despotism, 
have    managed   to   break   through    the   walls   of   the 


244  PAST  AND  PRESENT 


Ghetto  and  play  an  important  part,  not  only  in  the 
economic  but  also  in  the  spiritual  and  political  life  of 
Russia,  and  this  drift  from  the  narrow  interests  of 
Judaism  towards  the  limitless  possibilities  of  general 
Russian  life  is  bound  to  increase  a  thousandfold  with 
the  immensely  multiplied  opportunities  offered  by  an 
emancipated  Russia.  It  is  therefore  natural  to  expect 
that  the  concentration  of  Jewish  energy  upon  the  up- 
building of  new  Russia  will  in  many  cases  lead  to  a 
detachment  from  Judaism  and  Jewish  interests. 
Leon  Trotzky,  who,  according  to  despatches  in  the 
public  press,  recently  declared  that  he  did  not  feel 
himself  to  be  a  Jew,  did  not  speak  for  himself  alone; 
he  undoubtedly  spoke  for  a  numerous  class  of  Jews  in 
whom  the  solicitude  for  Russia  has  crushed  out  their 
loyalty  to  Judaism. 

There  is,  in  addition,  another  element  of  danger  in 
the  Russian  revolution,  to  which  very  little  attention 
has  been  paid  hitherto.  One  of  the  principal  factors 
making  for  a  strong  and  genuine  Jewish  life  in  Russia 
has  been  the  vastness  and  compactness  of  Russian 
Jewry.  To  mention  but  one  example:  the  extraor- 
dinary growth  of  literary  productivity  in  the  Hebrew 
and  Yiddish  languages,  which  is  characteristic  of 
modern  Russian-Jewish  life,  is  entirely  unthinkable 
without  the  large  numbers  of  patrons  and  readers 
upon  whom  it  depends  for  assistance  and  encourage- 
ment. In  the  new  Russia,  however,  Jewry  is  faced 
by  the  danger  of  complete  dismemberment.  The 
conquests  of  the  Teuton  armies  have  already  detached 
two  of  the  most  important  sections  of  Russian  Jewry: 
the  Jewry  of  Russian  Poland  and  the  Jewry  of  Lithu- 


THE  PRESENT  JEWISH  OUTLOOK  IN  RUSSIA     245 

ania.  And  the  recent  declaration  of  Ukrainianin  de- 
pendence involves  the  detachment  of  the  third 
important  section  of  Russian  Jewry  which  is  situated 
in  the  Russian  south-west.  These  principal  consti- 
tuencies of  Russian  Jewry,  representing  three  distinct 
types,  were  formerly  held  together  by  a  similarity  of 
political,  economic  and  social  conditions,  but,  without 
this  similarity,  they  are  bound  to  drift  apart.  Even 
if  the  dream  of  a  "United  States  of  Russia"  should 
ultimately  come  true,  these  territories  will  not  form 
a  unit  such  as  is  represented  by  the  United  States  of 
America,  which  are  divided  from  one  another  by 
subordinate  political  interests.  They  will  rather  form 
a  confederacy  after  the  pattern  of  Austria-Hungary, 
in  which  the  divisions,  being  not  only  political  and 
economic  but  also  racial  and  cultural,  are  far  more 
fundamental.  The  contact  between  the  future  Jews 
of  the  Ukraine  and  the  future  Jews  of  an  independent 
Poland  or  Lithuania  can  scarcely  be  expected  to  be 
more  intimate  than  is,  for  instance,  the  relationship 
between  the  Jewries  of  Galicia,  Hungary,  or  Bohemia, 
which  form  entirely  separate  entities,  and  develop 
along  fundamentally  different  lines.  In  a  way  it  may 
be  said  that  already  now  Russian  Jewry,  as  a  geo- 
graphical unit,  has  ceased  to  exist.  For  the  Pale  of 
Settlement  no  longer  belongs  to  Russia,  and  the  Jewry 
of  Russia  proper  is  confined  to  a  few  communities 
of  the  interior,  such  as  Petrograd  and  Moscow,  and 
to  the  fugitives  from  the  Pale  who  have  been  driven  by 
the  exigencies  of  war  into  the  central  Russian  provinces. 
This  geographical  decentralization  of  Russian  Jewry 
will  of  necessity  have  a  disintegrating  effect  upon  its 


246  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

spiritual  and  cultural  life,  thereby  accelerating  the 
process  of  decomposition  which  is  likely  to  follow  in 
the  wake  of  Jewish  emancipation. 

Such  is  the  Jewish  outlook  in  the  new  free  Russia. 
It  is  an  outlook  fraught  with  dismal  possibilities:  the 
dawn  of  Jewish  liberty  may  prove  the  dusk  of  Jewish 
loyalty,  and  the  rise  of  the  Russian  Jew  may  entail 
the  decline  of  Russian  Judaism.  Indeed,  those  of  us 
who  place  the  spiritual  welfare  of  Judaism  above  the 
material  progress  of  Jewry  would  have  little  reason 
to  rejoice  in  the  liberty  which  has  come  to  the  Jews  of 
Russia,  were  the  emancipation  of  Russian  Jewry  to 
follow  the  example  set  by  Jewish  emancipation  in 
Western  Europe. 

Fortunately,  however,  there  are  many  indications 
which  give  us  reasonable  assurance  that  the  emanci- 
pation of  Russian  Jewry  will  not  follow  the  example 
of  Western  European  emancipation.  These  indica- 
tions may  be  found  in  the  radically  different  attitude 
towards  Jewish  emancipation  both  on  the  part  of 
Russian  Jewry  and  on  the  part  of  the  Russian  people. 

To  begin  with  the  latter,  the  conception  of  liberty 
evolved  by  the  Russian  revolution  is  essentially 
different  from  the  ideals  set  up  by  the  French  revo- 
lution. The  French  revolution  proclaimed  liberty, 
equality  and  fraternity  for  the  individuals  of  the 
human  race  but  paid  scant  attention  to  the  rights  of 
the  human  group.  Clermont-Tonnerre,  the  valiant 
advocate  of  Jewish  emancipation,  was  quick  in  apply- 
ing this  fundamental  principle  of  the  French  revo- 
lution to  the  Jews  when,  on  December  23,  1789,  he 
declared  in  the  National  Assembly:  "To  the  Jews  as  a 


THE  PRESENT  JEWISH  OUTLOOK  IN  RUSSIA     247 

nation  everything  shall  be  refused;  to  the  Jews  as 
human  beings  everything  shall  be  granted!"  It  was 
a  tacit  implication  that  the  price  of  Jewish  emanci- 
pation could  be  nothing  less  than  the  national  dis- 
integration of  Jewry,  and  the  Jews  of  France  under- 
stood and  accepted  this  implication  when,  speaking 
through  the  Conference  of  Notables  and  the  Great 
Synhedrion,  they  solemnly  proclaimed  that  the  Jews 
had  ceased  to  form  a  nation. 

In  contradistinction  to  the  French  revolution  and 
in  advance  of  it,  the  Russian  revolution  has  inscribed 
on  its  banner  liberty,  equality  and  fraternity  for  the 
human  groups.  It  has  proclaimed  the  freedom  not 
only  of  the  individual  but  also  of  individual  aggre- 
gates, known  as  nations.  The  principle  of  national 
self-determination  forms  the  substructure  of  free 
Russia  and  there  is  every  reason  to  hope  that  the 
Russian  people  will  not  allow  the  Jewish  nation  to 
be  excluded  from  the  blessings  of  this  new  and  larger 
liberty. 

The  same  difference  in  attitude  towards  emanci- 
pation may  be  discerned  among  the  Russian  Jews 
themselves.  They  have  benefitted  by  the  bitter 
experiences  of  their  Western  European  brethren  and 
by  their  own  former  errors  in  that  direction.  For,  at 
one  time,  Jewish  emancipation  in  Russia  seemed  to 
take  exactly  the  same  course  as  the  emancipation  of 
Western  Europe.  It  began,  as  it  did  in  Germany,  by 
a  cultural  transformation,  using  the  Hebrew  language 
and  literature  as  a  stepping  stone  to  the  culture  of  the 
environment.  Isaac  Baer  Levinsohn,  the  father  of 
the  Hebrew   renaissance   in   Russia,   has  justly  been 


248  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

called  the  Russian  Mendelssohn,  for,  as  in  the  case 
of  Mendelssohn,  his  efforts  led,  entirely  against  his 
wishes,  to  a  detachment  from  Judaism.  When, 
again  as  in  the  West,  the  cultural  emancipation  was 
followed  by  the  promise  of  civil  emancipation  under 
Alexander  II.  the  mere  promise  was  enough  to  send 
a  tidal  wave  of  assimilation  through  Russian  Jewry 
which  eventually  threatened  to  swallow  it.  For- 
tunately, however,  Russian  Jewry  was  halted  on  its 
downward  rush  towards  national  self-annihilation. 
The  process  of  assimilation  was  cut  short  by  the 
pogroms,  and  ever  since  then  the  Jews  of  Russia  have 
stood  firmly  their  ground,  spurning  all  inducements 
to  national  self-effacement  and  defying  all  the  per- 
secutions and  temptations  of  Czardom.  The  national 
idea,  which,  having  sprung  into  life  before  the  pog- 
roms, received  an  immense  impetus  from  them, 
stamped  itself  indelibly  upon  the  entire  spiritual 
make-up  of  Russian  Jewry.  The  national  movement 
was  subsequently  consummated  in  Zionism  which, 
ever  since  its  inception,  has  derived  its  principal 
strength  from  Russian  Jewry.  But  even  those  who 
stayed  outside  the  Zionist  movement  were  yet  domi- 
nated by  the  Jewish  national  ideal,  and  were  opposed 
with  might  and  main  to  the  idea  of  national  self- 
renunciation. 

At  no  time  did  this  courageous  self-assertion  of 
Russian  Jewry,  as  represented  by  its  best  elements, 
manifest  itself  more  nobly  and  more  conspicuously 
than  it  did  during  the  last  decade  when,  beginning 
with  the  revolutionary  agitation  of  1905,  the  Jews  of 
Russia,    undeterred    by    persecutions    and    pogroms, 


THE  PRESENT  JEWISH  OUTLOOK  IN  RUSSIA     249 

fought  fearlessly  not  only  for  their  rights  as  men  and 
citizens  but  also  for  their  rights  as  Jews.  Indeed,  in 
modern  Jewish  history  there  is  scarcely  a  more 
heartening  example  of  Jewish  loyalty  and  dignity 
than  has  been  exhibited  by  the  Jews  of  Russia  in  their 
struggle  for  emancipation  under  the  regime  of  Nicho- 
las II.  Whereas  in  1856,  during  the  reign  of  Alex- 
ander II.,  the  Jews  had  pleaded  "that  our  gracious 
sovereign  may  bestow  his  kindness  upon  us,  and,  by 
distinguishing  the  grain  from  the  chaff,  may  be  pleased 
to  accord  a  few  moderate  privileges  to  the  most 
educated  among  us,"  and,  in  return  for  these 
privileges  which  were  subsequently  bestowed  upon  a 
few  sections  of  Jewry,  pledged  themselves  "that  the 
sharply  marked  traits  which  distinguish  the  Jews 
from  the  native  Russians  should  be  levelled,  and  that 
the  Jews  should  in  their  way  of  thinking  and  acting 
become  akin  to  the  latter,"1  the  Jews  of  modern 
Russia  violently  repudiated  this  fiunkyish  attitude. 
In  reply  to  the  ukase  of  Nicholas  II,  issued  on  De- 
cember 12,  1904,  promising  various  alleviations  and 
opening  up  the  prospect  of  a  gradual  emancipation 
to  the  Jews  of  Russia,  thirty-two  Jewish  communities 
presented  a  petition  to  Count  Witte  in  which  they 
boldly  declared  "that  the  insulted  dignity  of  man 
cannot  become  reconciled  to  half-measures  but 
demands  the  complete  removal  of  discrimination." 
Another  petition,  signed  by  twenty-six  communities, 
asserted  equally  "that  we  consider  every  attempt  to 
satisfy  and  assuage  the  Jewish  population  by  partial 

1  See  Dubnow,  History  of  the  Jews  in  Russia  and  Poland, 
Vol.  ii,  p.  160. 


250  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

improvements  of  any  kind  as  doomed  to  failure.  We 
are  expecting  complete  equality,  as  men  in  whom  the 
feeling  of  self-respect  is  alive,  as  conscious  citizens  in  a 
modern  body  politic."  The  Jewish  community  of 
Vilna,  the  "Lithuanian  Jerusalem,"  added  the  follow- 
ing declaration:  "As  a  cultured  nation  we  demand 
the  same  rights  of  national-cultural  self-determination 
which  must  be  accorded  to  all  nations  which  go  to 
make  up  the  Russian  State."  In  March,  1905,  the 
"League  for  the  Attainment  of  Equal  Rights  for  the 
Jewish  People  in  Russia"  was  formed,  which,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  demand  of  complete  civil  emancipation, 
wrote  on  its  banner  "the  freedom  of  national-cultural 
self-determination  in  all  its  manifestations."1  The 
liberation  of  the  Jewish  people,  and  not  merely  of 
the  Jewish  individual,  has  been  the  keynote  of  Russian- 
Jewish  emancipation. 

It  is  extraordinarily  characteristic  of  this  attitude 
of  Russian  Jewry  that  immediately  upon  its  liberation 
through  the  Russian  revolution  it  issued  a  call  for  a 
convention  of  Russian  Zionists.  This  convention 
met  in  Petrograd,  in  May,  1917,  and  was  attended 
by  five  hundred  delegates  from  all  parts  of  Russia 
and  by  two  thousand  guests.  The  remarkable 
addresses  delivered  at  that  Convention  voiced  not 
only  the  whole-hearted  allegiance  of  Russian  Jewry 
to  Russia  but  also  its  unshakable  determination  to 
hold  aloft  its  ancient  national  ideals,  calling  upon  the 
free  Russian  people  to  help  it  in  the  realization  of 
these  ideals. 


1  An  elaborate  account  of  the  emancipation  struggle  in 
modern  Russia  will  be  found  in  the  forthcoming  third  volume  of 
Dubnow's  "History  of  the  Jews  in  Russia  and  Poland." 


THE  PRESENT  JEWISH  OUTLOOK  IN  RUSSIA     251 


And  it  is  just  as  characteristic  of  the  attitude  of  the 
Russian  people  that,  instead  of  frowning  upon  the 
demands  of  the  Zionists,  it  received  them  with  warm- 
hearted sympathy.  The  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs 
declared  officially  his  readiness  to  assist  the  Jews  in 
their  strivings  for  a  Jewish  center  in  Palestine,  while 
the  Commander-in-chief  of  the  Russian  army  issued 
an  order  of  the  day,  calling  upon  the  Jewish  soldiers 
in  the  Russian  ranks  to  congregate  in  the  military 
headquarters  for  the  purpose  of  electing  delegates  to 
the  Zionist  Convention  and  promising  to  defray  the 
travelling  expenses  of  the  delegates  out  of  the  official 
funds. 

This  spirit  of  true  liberty,  which  the  Russian  people 
no  less  than  Russian  Jewry  have  manifested  in  their 
attitude  towards  the  question  of  Jewish  rights,  is  a 
sufficient  guarantee  that  Jewish  emancipation  in 
Russia  will  avoid  the  pitfalls  of  Western  European 
emancipation,  with  all  its  disastrous  consequences 
for  Judaism.  The  Jews  of  Russia  will  refuse  to  be 
reconciled  to  that  "slavery  in  freedom"  which,  as  a 
great  Jewish  thinker  has  brilliantly  shown,  has  proved 
the  curse  of  emancipated  Jewry  in  the  West  of  Europe. 
The  Russian  Jews  wi  1  endeavor  to  be  truly  free,  free 
as  men  and  as  Jews;  free  to  participate  in  the  great 
Russia  of  the  future,  and  to  develop  along  their  own 
lines  towards  a  brighter  future  for  the  Jewish  people. 

By  a  concatenation  of  events,  in  which  the  believing 
Jew  will  humbly  acknowledge  the  hand  of  "the 
Guardian  of  Israel  that  sleepeth  not  nor  slumbereth," 
the  proclamation  of  the  Russian  Government  grant- 
ing liberty  to  the  Jews  of  Russia  was  followed  in  the 


252  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

same  year  by  the  declaration  of  the  British  Govern- 
ment holding  out  the  promise  of  national  restoration 
to  the  Jewish  people.  A  Jewish  center  on  the  historic 
soil  of  Judaism  will  prove  a  tremendous  centripetal 
force  which  will  counteract  the  centrifugal  factors  of 
modern  Russian-Jewish  life.  Whatever  the  political 
destinies  of  Russian  Jewry  may  prove  to  be,  it  will 
be  held  together  by  a  common  ideal  and  a  common 
aspiration.  In  this  wise  the  old  vision  of  our  Rabbis 
will  come  literally  true:  athida  Eretz  Israel  she-tith- 
pashet  be-kol  ka-aratzoth,  "In  the  future  the  influence 
of  the  Land  of  Israel  will  spread  to  all  the  countries  of 
the  world." 


XV 

THE    PROBLEM    OF  JUDAISM  IN  AMERICA* 

IT  is  now  a  second  time  that  I  have  been  honored 
by  an  invitation  to  speak  before  the  Mickve 
Israel  Association.  Some  three  years  ago  I  had  the 
privilege  of  delivering  an  address  before  you  on  the 
Prophet  Jeremiah.1  This  occasion  stands  out  promi- 
nently in  my  recollection.  It  was  my  first  English 
address,  and  marked,  in  my  private  career,  the  begin- 
ning of  a  closer  association  with  the  life  of  this  country. 
I  have  since  endeavored  to  become  more  familiar 
with  the  language  and  conditions  of  the  new  land. 
I  have  studied  as  closely  as  opportunity  permitted, 
the  various  aspects  of  Amercan  life  in  general,  and  of 
American-Jewish  life  in  particular,  and  now  that  I 
am  asked  again  to  speak  before  you,  I  find  sufficient 
courage  in  my  heart,  instead  of  reverting  to  the 
trodden  roads  of  the  past,  to  venture  upon  the  slippery 
paths  of  the  present  and  to  take  up  a  subject  which  is, 
or  ought  to  be,  uppermost  in  the  mind  of  every 
thinking  Jew:  the  problem  of  Judaism  in  America. 
It  may  seem  bold  for  one  whose  residence  in  this 
country  has  only  been  of  a  few  years'  duration  to 
speak  on  an  American  problem  before  an  assembly 
1  See  above  p.  67  et  seq. 

'Lecture  delivered  before  the  "Mickve  Israel  Association" 
of  Philadelphia,  on  December  8,  1907.  Published  in  the  Jewish 
Comment  on  December  25,  1908  and  January  1,  1909. 


254  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

which  is  deeply  rooted  in  the  American  soil  and  in- 
timately associated  with  American  life.  But  perhaps 
I  may  say,  as  our  Patriarch  Abraham  said  to  the 
native  residents  of  Canaan:  Gher  we-toshab  anokhi 
'immakhem,  "I  am  a  stranger  as  well  as  a  citizen  in 
your  midst."  I  have  been  in  this  country  long  enough 
to  have  overcome  that  nagging  disposition  of  the 
stranger  which  seeksdel  ight  in  fault-finding,  and  I  have 
not  yet  been  here  long  enough  to  have  fallen  a  prey 
to  that  indiscriminate  patriotism  of  the  native  which 
covereth  every  sin  and  acts  on  the  principle:  "right  or 
wrong,  it  is  my  country."  This  happy  medium 
between  excessive  skepticism  and  over-zealous  en- 
thusiasm, the  result  of  circumstances  for  which  I 
deserve  no  credit,  coupled  with  a  former  study  of  the 
conditions  of  various  Jewries  at  close  range  and  the 
natural  disposition  of  the  student  of  the  past  to  weigh 
the  incidents  of  the  moment  against  the  experience  of 
history,  extenuates  to  some  degree  the  boldness  of 
my  undertaking  and  constitutes  my  chief  claim  to 
your  attention  and  consideration. 

I  think  I  shall  serve  the  purpose  of  this  lecture 
best,  if  I  take  up  the  problem  of  Judaism  as  a  whole, 
referring,  whenever  necessary,  to  the  important 
modifications  in  which  this  problem  is  mirrored  in 
America. 

In  considering  the  problem  of  Judaism,  I  am 
probably  expected  to  set  out  with  an  exact  definition 
of  what  I  understand  by  the  term  "Judaism."  But 
if  I  allow  myself  to  be  entangled  in  the  snares  of 
definitions,  which  are,  after  all,  only  a  decent  way  of 
begging  the  question,  I  am  afraid  I  shall  never  be 
able   to   return    to   the   subject   of   this   lecture.     If 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  JUDAISM  IN  AMERICA        255 

definitions  are  irksome  in  general,  because  they  repre- 
sent the  delicate  attempt  to  reduce  the  phenomena  of 
living,  palpitating  reality  to  a  dead,  stationary 
formula,  and  doubly  irksome  when  applied  to  phe- 
nomena which  bear  the  stamp  of  spirituality  on  their 
"ism,"  they  are  almost  unattainable  in  the  case  of  an 
historical  organism  like  Judaism,  which,  during  the 
whole  unparalleled  length  of  its  history,  has  been 
undergoing  uninterrupted,  though  imperceptible, 
changes,  which  in  the  course  of  its  career  has  encount- 
ered innumerable  influences  of  every  origin  and  de- 
scription, and,  in  consequence,  presents  in  almost  every 
age  and  country  a  modified  appearance.  It  will, 
however,  suffice  for  our  immediate  purposes,  if  I  say, 
vaguely  perhaps,  but  briefly,  that  Judaism  represents 
the  sum  total  of  those  inner  characteristics,  as  in- 
stincts, sentiments,  convictions  and  ideals,  which  are 
to  a  lesser  or  larger  degree  common  to  the  individuals 
of  the  aggregate  known  as  the  Jewish  people.  If  the 
Jews,  or  Jewry,  represent  the  ethnological,  or  physical, 
appearance  of  the  Jewish  people,  Judaism  may  be  said 
to  represent  its  spiritual,  or  psychological,  make-up; 
in  other  words,  Jewry  constitutes  the  body,  Judaism 
the  spirit,  or  the  soul,  of  the  Jewish  people.  As  the 
soul  of  the  individual,  so  the  soul  of  a  nation  is  in 
itself  invisible.  It  finds  its  visible  expression  in  a 
certain  manner  of  life,  such  as  customs,  habits  and 
ceremonies,  and  in  a  certain  spiritual  productivity, 
such  as  literature,  art  and  the  like — in  short,  in  the 
two  spheres,  which,  taken  together,  form  what  we  call 
the  culture  of  a  nation.  Judaism  would  thus,  more 
exactly,  represent  the  Jewish  soul,  or  spirit,  and  its 
outward    manifestation    in    Jewish    culture.     Jewry 


256  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

without  Judaism  is  no  more  than  a  body  without  a 
spirit,  a  dead  inanimate  mechanism,  which  may,  by 
sheer  mechanical  momentum,  move  on  for  a  little 
while,  but  must  in  the  end  come  to  a  complete  stand- 
still. The  problem  of  Judaism  would  then  consist  in 
the  fact  that  the  soul,  or  spirit,  of  the  Jewish  people, 
as  manifested  in  its  culture,  has  in  modern  times  shown 
symptoms  of  decay  of  so  alarming  a  nature  as  to  make 
us  fear  for  its  continued  existence.  The  beginning  of 
this  decay  is  obviously  coincident  with  the  beginning 
of  Jewish  emancipation,  that  is  to  say,  with  the 
moment  when  the  Jews  left  the  Ghetto  to  join  the 
life  and  the  culture  of  the  nations  around  them. 

I  know  there  are  professional  or  well-meaning  opti- 
mists in  our  midst  who  would  fain  deny  the  existence 
of  this  decay  and,  not  unlike  the  false  prophets  before 
the  downfall  of  Judea,  would  fain  cry:  "Peace! 
Peace!",  while  there  is  no  peace.  There  are  others 
who  are  courageous  enough  to  admit  the  fact,  but 
endeavor  to  give  it  a  different  interpretation.  But 
he  who  keeps  his  eye  open  to  truth  and  looks  reality 
squarely  in  the  face  cannot  for  a  moment  be  in  doubt 
as  to  the  correctness  of  the  fact  and  its  real  bearing. 
We  need  but  cast  a  glance  on  the  status  of  Judaism 
in  various  countries  before  and  after  the  emancipation 
to  realize  beyond  a  shadow  of  doubt  the  deadly,  dis- 
integrating effect  of  outward  freedom  on  Judaism. 

This  effect  would  appear  far  more  palpable,  so 
palpable,  indeed,  that  only  dishonesty  could  deny  it, 
were  it  not  powerfully  counteracted  in  many  countries 
by  anti-Semitic  tendencies,  on  the  one  hand,  which 
have  checked  and  even  turned  back  the  progress  of 
emancipation,   and   by   the   large   stream   of   Jewish 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  JUDAISM  IN  AMERICA        257 


emigration,  on  the  other,  which,  proceeding  from  the 
lands  of  oppression  to  the  lands  of  freedom,  carries 
with  it,  on  or  under  the  surface,  the  preserving  and 
reviving  influences  of  the  Ghetto.  As  it  is,  the  effect 
of  emancipation  on  Judaism  is  such  as  to  justify  our 
most  serious  apprehensions. 

In  Italy,  which  in  times  gone  by  presented  one  of 
the  finest  and  brightest  phases  of  Jewish  culture, 
which  only  two  generations  ago  was  still  able  to 
produce  a  personality  so  profoundly  and  genu- 
inely Jewish  as  S.  D.  Luzzato,  and  to  present 
American  Jewry  in  our  own  generation  with  a  man 
like  Sabato  Morais,  the  founder  of  the  Jewish 
Theological  Seminary  of  America — in  Italy  the  con- 
dition of  Judaism  at  present  is  one  of  utter  stagna- 
tion, and  Jewish  scholarship,  which  once  upon  a  time 
had  so  many  celebrated  champions  in  that  sunny 
land,  is  now  represented  by  a  few  descendants  of  the 
Galician  Ghetto. 

In  France,  where  centuries  ago  Talmudic  Judaism 
found  its  most  brilliant  expounders,  Judaism  is  but  a 
lifeless  and,  we  need  scarcely  add,  an  unsuccessful 
imitation  of  French  Catholicism.  Its  tiny  stream  of 
Jewish  life  is  almost  exclusively  supplied  from  the 
Ghetto  of  Alsace,  where  the  Jews  still  speak  their 
own  dialect,  and  replenished  in  recent  years  by  new- 
comers from  Russia. 

In  German  Jewry,  the  heart  of  the  Jewish  people  in 
times  of  old  and  its  brain  in  modern  times,  once 
celebrated  for  her  saints  and  martyrs,  and  later 
renowned  for  her  scholars  and  writers — in  German 
Jewry  we  stumble  on  all  sides  against  indifference 
and  apostasy,  and  her  intellectual  productivity  shows 


258  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

an  appalling  decline.  The  decay  of  German  Jewry 
would  be  far  more  tangible  were  it  not  powerfully 
counteracted  by  the  immigration  from  the  Russian 
and  Polish  Ghetto,  and,  to  an  extent  not  in  the  re- 
motest suspected  by  outsiders,  by  the  influence  of 
the  now  Prussian,  but  formerly  Polish,  province  of 
Posen,  where  Jewish  life  has  still  preserved  many  a 
genuine  feature  of  Polish  Judaism.  One  only  has  to 
recall  the  fact  that,  with  very  few  exceptions,  the  past 
and  present  teachers  of  the  three  rabbinical  colleges 
in  Germany  have  come  from  Posen,  Hungary, 
Galicia,  or  Russia,  to  realize  the  terrible  intellectual 
impoverishment  of  the  Jewry  which  was  the  originator 
of  modern  Hebrew  literature  and  gave  birth  and  name 
to  the  Science  of  Judaism. 

In  England  Jewish  emancipation,  owing  to  the 
intensely  religious  spirit  of  the  English  nation, 
gave  at  first  the  promise  of  a  genuine  modern  Jewish 
life.  But  this  promise  has  not  been  fulfilled.  The  de- 
composition of  English  Jewry,  being  effectively 
checked  by  the  conservative  tendencies  of  England 
and  the  stream  of  Jewish  immigration  from  Poland, 
proceeds  much  more  slowly  than  elsewhere,  but 
proceed  it  does,  and  no  one  perhaps  is  more  pessimistic 
about  the  future  of  Judaism  in  that  country  than  are, 
to  judge  by  their  public  utterances,  the  leading 
English  Jews  themselves. 

Far  more  striking  and  far  more  painful  to  record  is 
the  effect  of  modern  conditions  on  Judaism  in  those 
countries  where  the  Jews  are  still  isolated  and  lead, 
or  have  till  recently  led,  a  genuinely  Jewish  life. 
We  only  have  to  point  to  the  sudden  change  in  the 
status  of  Judaism  which  has  taken  place  before  our 


THE  PROBLEMS  OF  JUDAISM  IN  AMERICA       259 

very  eyes  in  Hungary,  to  the  terrible  decay  of  Judaism 
in  Galicia  and — I  say  it  with  a  feeling  of  particular 
pain — to  the  frightful  ravages  in  Jewish  life  and 
thought  caused  by  the  mere  glimmer  of  emancipa- 
tion in  Russia,  to  realize  what  Judaism  may  expect 
from  the  effects  of  freedom  and  the  influences  of  the 
surroundings. 

So  far  the  Old  World.  As  for  the  New,  no  undue 
skepticism  is  necessary  to  recognize  that — leaving 
aside  for  the  moment  the  other  side  of  the  medal, 
which  will  be  presented  later — the  condition  of  Juda- 
ism and  the  effect  of  its  free  exposure  to  external 
influences  is  scarcely  different.  To  be  sure,  people 
who  are  content  to  tap  the  surface  can  easily  point  to 
the  tremendous  growth  of  American  Judaism,  to  the 
ever  increasing  number  of  Jewish  congregations  and 
institutions.  But  these  people  seem,  or  wish,  to 
forget  that  this  development  is  the  direct  or  indirect 
product  of  the  Ghetto,  for  which  this  country  deserves 
no  credit  whatsoever.  The  expansion  of  American 
Judaism  is  not  an  organic  growth  from  within,  but  a 
mechanic  addition  from  without.  Its  gain,  to  use  a 
Biblical  simile,  is  the  gain  of  one  who  puts  his  earnings 
into  a  bag  with  holes.  As  long  as  the  earnings 
exceed  the  holes,  the  bag  seems  constantly  to  swell. 
But  no  sooner  will  the  earnings  have  stopped  than 
the  bag  will  begin  to  shrink  and  will  finally  collapse. 
The  disintegrating  influence  of  American  conditions 
on  Jewish  life  and  productivity  can  be  demonstrated 
most  palpably  in  that  section  of  American  Jewry  which 
has  for  a  sufficient  length  of  time  been  exposed  to  the 
life  and  liberty  of  this  country,  and  in  which  the  extent 
of  de-Judaization  stands  in  exact  proportion  to  the 


260  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

amount  of  freedom  enjoyed  by  it.  This  process  of 
de-Judaization  is  visible  distinctly  enough  among  the 
Children  of  the  Ghetto  and,  to  a  far  more  appalling 
extent,  among  the  Grandchildren  of  the  Ghetto. 
An  experienced  Jewish  minister  of  New  York,  who 
has  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  closely 
watched  the  marvellous  growth  of  Jewry  in  that 
largest  Jewish  center  ever  known  in  history,  summed 
up  some  time  ago,  for  purposes  quite  different  from 
those  pursued  in  this  paper,  the  Jewish  potentialities 
of  the  newly  arrived  population  in  the  striking  dictum: 
"What  will  our  second  and  third  generation  be  a 
quarter  of  a  century  hence?  American?  Yes.  Jew- 
ish? Perhaps."  This  "perhaps,"  which  people  with 
a  more  skeptical  turn  of  mind  are  disposed  to  turn 
into  a  plain  "no,"  expresses  in  a  nutshell  the  grave 
apprehensions  which  those  acquainted  with  the  situ- 
ation entertain  for  the  future  of  American  Judaism. 
Thus,  wherever  our  gaze  turns  we  witness  the  same 
spectacle,  the  decomposition  of  Judaism,  of  Jewish 
living  and  Jewish  thinking,  under  the  influence  of 
freedom.  No  amount  of  high-sounding  phraseology 
can  deceive  us  as  to  the  meaning  of  this  terrible  truth. 
Judaism  which  was  able  to  subsist  and  even  to  develop 
in  the  narrowness  and  darkness  of  the  Ghetto  is  cut 
off  in  its  very  strength  when  brought  out  into  the 
airy  expanse  of  modern  life.  Judaism  which  stood 
out  like  a  rock  amidst  the  billows  of  hatred  and 
storms  of  persecution  is  melting  away  like  wax  under 
the  mild  rays  of  freedom.  It  may  be  painful  to 
realize  it  and  far  more  painful  to  express  it.  But 
if  the  correct  diagnosis  of  a  disease  is  indispensable  for 
its  remedy,  then  it  is  the  sacred  duty  of  every  Jew 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  JUDAISM  IN  AMERICA        261 

who  loves  his  people  and  thinks  of  its  future  fearlessly 
to  perceive  and  fearlessly  to  proclaim  the  critical 
condition  of  modern  Judaism  and  the  terrible  dangers 
that  beset  it. 

This  apparent  incompatibility  of  Judaism  with 
modern  life  and  culture  is  the  most  depressing  and 
the  most  humiliating  experience  which  can  ever  tor- 
ment the  soul  of  the  thinking  Jew  with  a  particle  of 
Jewish  pride  still  left  in  his  heart.  It  is  a  tragedy 
far  more  stirring  and  heartrending  than  all  the 
material  sufferings  of  our  people.  Yet  there  are 
but  few  in  our  midst  who  are  fully  aware  of  this 
terrible  problem.  The  problem  of  the  Jews,  of  the 
physical  misery  of  our  nation,  engages  the  heart 
and  the  hand  of  every  Jew  with  a  spark  of  Jewish 
consciousness  or  Jewish  sentiment  in  him.  Powerful 
organizations  grapple  energetically,  and  more  or  less 
successfully,  with  this  problem.  But  most  of  us 
utterly  ignore  the  problem  of  Judaism,  the  problem 
of  our  spiritual  misery.  The  majority  of  modernized 
Jews  still  swear  by  the  panacea  of  Jewish  emancipa- 
tion, and  pin  all  their  hope  and  faith  to  the  political, 
economic  and  social  advancement  of  the  Jews. 
Their  policy  may  be  summed  up  in  the  words  of  the 
Prophet:  "When  thou  wilt  deal  thy  bread  to  the 
hungry  and  bring  the  poor  that  are  cast  out  to  thy 
house,  when  thou  wilt  see  the  naked  that  thou  wilt 
cover  him,  and  thou  wilt  not  hide  thyself  from 
thine  own  flesh,  then  shall  thy  light  break  forth  as 
the  dawn,  and  thy  cure  shall  spring  forth  speedily." 
They  are  blind  to  the  fact  that  the  dawn  of  the  Jews 
is  the  dusk  of  Judaism;  that  the  nearer  the  problem 
of  Jewry  reaches  its  solution,  the  more  complicated 


262  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

and  the  more  dangerous  becomes  the  problem  of 
Judaism;  that  the  more  emancipated,  the  more 
prosperous,  the  more  successful  the  Jews  become,  the 
more  impoverished,  the  more  defenceless  and  the  more 
threatened  becomes  Judaism,  the  only  reason  and 
the  only  foundation  of  their  existence.  And  while 
our  heart  is  aroused  over  the  martyrs  that  fell  by  the 
hands  of  violent  mobs,  we  witness  with  indifference 
the  disappearance  of  that  for  which  they  became 
martyrs.  And  while  we  bewail  the  few  leaves  that 
were  plucked  off  our  trees  by  brutal  hands,  we  coolly 
observe  how  large  sections  of  our  foliage  wither  and 
fall  off,  because  the  growing  forces  of  the  tree  are  too 
weak  to  hold  them.  Of  what  use  is  it,  then,  to  boast 
of  the  achievements  of  Jewish  emancipation  and  to 
point  to  the  mental,  economic  and  social  advance  of 
the  Jewish  people  if  purchased  at  the  expense  of  the 
Jewish  soul,  without  which  Jewry  is  but  an  empty, 
and  not  always  attractive,  shell?  Of  what  avail  is  all 
the  material  prosperity  of  our  nation  when  bought 
at  the  price  of  our  spiritual  death,  which  must  ulti- 
mately lead  to  the  physical  annihilation  of  our  com- 
munity? 

Having  stated  the  nature  of  the  problem  we  must 
now  try  to  search  for  a  solution ;  but  none  seems  to  be 
forthcoming.  We  are  on  the  horns  of  a  dilemma: 
Either  return  to  the  Ghetto,  or  complete  absorption. 
Tertium  non  datur\  But  of  the  two  openings,  the 
one  is  impossible,  the  other  unacceptable.  For  we 
may  recognize  as  clearly  as  possible  the  preserving 
influences  of  the  Ghetto;  we  may,  when  made  to  shiver 
in  a  cold,  big  world,  affectionately  dream  of  its  lowly 
roof,  its  narrow  walls,  its  cheering  fireside,  its  peaceful 


THE  PROBLEM  OE  JUDAISM  IN  AMERICA        263 

atmosphere;  but  the  Jews  who  have  lived  and  grown 
in  freedom  can  as  little  go  back  to  the  Ghetto  as  the 
grown  bird  can  return  to  its  eggshell.  As  for  com- 
plete absorption,  there  are  thousands  among  us — 
in  itself  the  surest  symptom  of  our  decay — who  coolly 
or  even  longingly  look  forward  to  this  possibility. 
But  to  those  of  us  who  still  feel  the  stream  of  Jewish 
life  rolling  through  their  veins,  who  are  dominated  and 
actuated  by  Jewish  sentiment  and  Jewish  thought,  to 
whom  Judaism  is  the  breath  of  their  nostrils  and  the 
fountain  of  their  life,  are  struck  with  a  terror  that  no 
words  can  describe  at  the  mere  possibility  of  their 
spiritual  death,  and  every  fibre  of  their  being  cries 
out  aloud  against  a  solution  which  strikes  at  their 
life  of  lives. 

But  is  there  really  no  escape  from  this  frightful 
dilemma?  Is  there  no  hope  for  the  Jews  to  participate 
in  the  life  and  the  culture  around  them  and  yet  remain 
Jewish?  Is  Judaism  actually  like  a  gas,  which  can 
only  be  kept  by  the  grip  of  iron  and  evaporates  when 
allowed  to  escape  from  its  prison?  Were  it  proved  by 
the  facts  of  our  history,  with  its  unparalleled  store  of 
experience,  that  union  between  Judaism  and  freedom 
is  impossible,  then  our  fate  would  be  sealed,  and  all 
our  protests  and  agonies  would  be  of  no  avail.  All 
that  we  should  have  to  do  would  be  to  lie  down  in  our 
shame,  to  wrap  ourselves  in  our  ignominy  and  to 
await  with  deathly  stupor  the  verdict  of  nature. 
But,  happily  enough,  our  history  does  not  prove  it 
impossible.  To  be  sure,  the  period  in  Jewish  history 
preceding  the  era  of  emancipation  was  one  of  isolation, 
but  this  period  was  in  its  turn  preceded  by  another, 
which  was  one  of  freedom.     The  great  and  glorious 


264  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

Jewish-Arabic  period  deals  a  deathblow  to  the  dilemma 
besetting  the  problem  of  Judaism,  and  is  in  itself  an 
overwhelming  proof  and  shining  example  of  the 
compatibility  of  an  active  participation  of  the  Jews 
in  the  life  and  culture  of  the  nations  around  them, 
with  a  strong,  vigorous,  genuine  development  of 
Judaism. 

The  amount  of  freedom  enjoyed  by  the  Jews  of  the 
Arabic  epoch  was  in  no  way  inferior  to  that  of  our 
own.  The  Jews  took  an  honorable  and  energetic 
part  in  the  economic,  social  and  political  development 
of  the  Eastern,  as  well  as  the  Western,  Califate. 
We  encounter  among  the  Jews  of  that  period  men  of 
affairs  wielding  a  powerful  influence  in  the  public  life 
of  the  country.  We  find  Jewish  merchants,  Jewish 
financiers,  Jewish  dignitaries  of  high  standing; 
and  Jewish  vizers  and  ministers  of  State  are  more 
frequently  to  be  met  with  their  than  in  our  own  times. 
The  association  with  the  culture  and  spiritual  in- 
fluences of  the  age  was  just  as  close  and  intimate. 
The  Jews  made  themselves  the  possessors  of  all  the 
intellectual  achievements  of  Arabic  civilization,  with 
an  eagerness  and  rapidity  which  reminds  us  vividly 
of  our  own  days,  and  which  found  a  curious  echo  in 
the  outcry  of  a  fanatic  of  the  early  part  of  that 
period,  which  sounds  quite  familiar  to  our  own  ears. 
"Every  day," — thus  runs  this  lamentation  which, 
characteristically  enough,  has  a  Karaite  for  its  author 
and  is  written  in  Arabic,  the  language  of  the  new 
culture — "every  day  we  commit  a  number  of  sins 
and  make  ourselves  guilty  of  a  great  many  transgres- 
sions. We  mix  with  the  Gentiles  around  us  and 
imitate  their  doings.     Our  chief  aim  is  the  study  of  the 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  JUDAISM  IN  AMERICA        265 

Arabic  language  and  its  philology,  on  which  we 
lavishly  spend  our  money,  while  we  leave  aside  the 
knowledge  of  the  holy  tongue  and  the  meditation  in 
the  commandments  of  the  Lord."1  The  intimate 
acquaintance  of  the  Jews  with  the  religion  of  Islam 
and  its  highly  developed  theology  may  be  inferred 
from  the  fact  that  the  religious  terminology  of  the 
Jewish  thinkers  is  largely  patterned  after  that  of  the 
Mohammedan  dogmatists,  and  that  Moses  is  often 
designated  by  the  same  titles  which  were  otherwise 
applied  to  Mohammed.  The  close  connection  of  Juda- 
ism with  the  philosophy  of  the  age,  which,  rooting  in 
Greek  thought,  was  far  from  favorable  to  positive 
religion,  is  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  Aristotle  was 
to  the  Jews  of  that  period  "the  Philosopher"  and  was 
put  on  a  level  scarcely  inferior  to  that  of  the  Jewish 
Lawgiver. 

Yet  the  very  same  age  saw  a  development  of  the 
Jewish  spirit  and  Jewish  culture,  so  many-sided,  so 
fascinating  and  so  rich  in  results  as  never  before  or 
after  in  the  lands  of  the  exile.  No  department  in  the 
spiritual  treasury  of  our  people  remained  untouched 
by  the  loving  care  of  its  sons.  Bible,  Talmud, 
Hebrew  literature,  Hebrew  poetry  and  philology, 
Jewish  philosophy  and  everything  that  constitutes 
the  pride  of  the  Jew  found  their  greatest  and  most 
brilliant  representatives  in  that  period,  and  th  pro-e 
found  attachment  to  Judaism  went  hand  in  hand  with 
a  noble  enthusiasm  for  everything  noble  outside  of 
Judaism.     Hasdai  ibn  Shaprut,  the  powerful  diplomat 

1  Compare  the  quotation  in  the  treatise  of  the  present  writer 
entitled  Der  Sprachgebrauch  des  Maimonides,  Introduction, 
p.  XI,  note  1. 


266  PAST  AND  PRESENT 


of  Cordova,  was  not  only  a  generous  supporter  of  every 
manifestation  of  Jewish  learning,  but  took  himself  a 
most  profound  and  stimulating  interest  in  the  rise  of 
Hebrew  philology  in  Spain.  Samuel  ibn  Nagdela,  the 
Prime  Minister  of  Granada,  guided  not  only  the 
affairs  of  the  State,  but  also  the  studies  in  the  Beth 
Hamidrash,  where  he  delivered  lectures  on  the 
Talmud,  and  he  is  celebrated  in  Jewish  history  both  as 
a  Talmudic  scholar  and  a  Hebrew  poet.  Solomon  Ibn 
Gabirol,  who  summed  up  the  philosophy  of  the  age 
in  an  Arabic  work,  which  profoundly  influenced 
mediaeval  Christian  philosophy,  is  one  of  the  greatest 
poets  of  our  nation  in  its  sacred  tongue.  Moses 
Maimonides,  who  is  a  living  expression  of  the  whole 
Arabic  culture  of  the  age,  is  at  the  same  t  me  the 
greatest  scholar  and  thinker  of  post-Biblical  Judaism, 
and  while  in  his  philosophical  standard  work,  written 
in  Arabic,  he  "guides  the  perplexed"of  his  time  in 
the  paths  of  Aristotelian  philosophy,  he  leads  in  his 
religious  code  the  large  mass  of  his  people  "with  a 
strong  hand"  to  the  sources  of  Judaism.  Everywhere 
we  witness  harmony  and  beauty,  a  full,  luxuriant 
growth  of  Judaism  under  the  benign  rays  of  freedom 
and  culture. 

Thus  the  great  Jewish-Arabic  period  irrefutably 
shows  that  Judaism  is  compatible  with  freedom,  and 
that  a  full  participation  in  the  life  of  the  nations  may 
very  well  be  reconciled  with  a  deep  attachment  to 
Judaism  and  a  vigorous  activity  in  its  behalf.  The 
same  holds  true  of  our  own  age.  There  is  nothing 
in  modern  life  or  culture  which  is  more  opposed  and 
more  dangerous  to  Judaism  than  were  the  conditions 
of  that  era.     Modern  Christianity  possesses  no  more 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  JUDAISM  IN  AMERICA        267 

attraction  for  the  adherents  of  Judaism  than  did  the 
highly  developed  Muhammedan  theology  of  that  age, 
and  modern  thought  is  no  more  irreconcilable  with  the 
Judaism  of  the  twentieth  century  than  was  the  phi- 
losophy of  Aristotle  with  the  Judaism  of  the  twelfth. 
But  in  confronting  Judaism  with  the  culture  of  the 
surrounding  nations  we  must  present  it  as  it  is,  in  its 
true  shape  and  size,  and  not  as  a  carricature.  It  was 
the  fatal  mistake  of  the  period  of  emancipation,  a 
mistake  which  is  the  real  source  of  all  the  subsequent 
disasters  in  modern  Jewish  life,  that,  in  order  to 
facilitate  the  fight  for  political  equality,  Judaism  was 
put  forward  not  as  a  culture,  as  the  full  expression  of 
the  inner  life  of  the  Jewish  people,  but  as  a  creed,  as 
the  summary  of  a  few  abstract  articles  of  faith, 
similar  in  character  to  the  religion  of  the  surrounding 
nations.  I  said  before  that  Judaism  represents  the 
inner  characteristics  of  the  Jewish  people  as  manifes- 
ted in  its  culture,  in  its  mode  of  living  and  in  its 
intellectual  productivity.  We  only  need  recall  the 
truism — almost  too  trivial  to  be  repeated — that  there 
is  no  exact  equivalent  for  the  term  "religion"  in 
Hebrew,  or  point  to  the  well-known  fact  that,  despite 
the  aptitude  of  the  Jewish  mind  for  theological 
intricacies,  the  Jews  were  never  reconciled  to  the  idea 
of  formulating  a  creed,  to  realize  that  Judaism  is  far 
more  than  a  mere  faith  and  that  it  is  essentially 
different  in  its  origin  and  structure  from  Christianity 
and  similar  religions.  Forced  on  the  Procrustes'  couch 
of  a  religious  denomination,  and  stripped  of  all  those 
elements  that  bore  special  relation  to  the  people  that 
produced  it,  Judaism  was  crippled  in  its  vital  functions 
and   rendered   unfit   to   meet  and   to   resist   the  new 


268  PAST  AND   PRESENT 

conditions.  Jewish  living  had  to  be  sacrificed  for 
the  sake  of  emancipation.  The  beliefs  of  Judaism 
had  to  be  refashioned  so  as  to  purge  them  of  their 
intimate  connection  with  the  Jewish  national  as- 
pirations. The  progress  of  Judaism  was  no  more 
an  organic  development  from  within,  but  a  mere 
series  of  mechanic  changes  dictated  by  considerations 
from  without.  The  whole  structure  of  Judaism  was 
thus  turned  top  to  bottom.  Judaism  became  a 
church,  the  rabbis  became  priests  and  the  Jews  became 
a  flock,  not  quite  as  tractable  perhaps,  though  quite 
as  ignorant  as  other  flocks.  The  Jewish  education 
of  the  children,  which  formed  the  corner-stone  of 
Biblical  and  Talmudic  Judaism,  dwindled  down  to 
Sunday-school  experiments,  and  the  children  of 
Israel  often  enough  know  of  Judaism  and  their  people 
no  more  than  what  they  are  told  by  Israel's  enemies. 
Jewish  scholarship,  which,  to  an  unequalled  extent, 
was  the  possession  of  the  rank  and  file  of  our  nation, 
gave  place  to  widespread  ignorance,  and  the  name 
Am- Haaretz,  which  in  olden  times  disqualified  a  Jew 
for  the  humblest  social  position,  almost  became  a 
title  of  honor.  All  those  intellectual  activities  of 
Judaism  which  could  not  be  pressed  into  the  mould 
of  theology,  though  of  enormous  value  for  the  culti- 
vation of  the  Jewish  consciousness — activities  which 
in  Biblical  times  produced  the  Song  of  Songs  and,  in 
the  Middle  ages,  gave  birth  to  a  highly  developed 
literature  and  poetry — were  thrown  out  of  Jewish 
life,  or,  in  the  best  case,  confined  to  the  cabinets  of 
a  few  scholars. 

Thus  the  modern  Jew,  while  partaking  of  the  ful- 
ness of  modern  culture,  was  made  to  starve  within  the 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  JUDAISM  IN  AMERICA        269 

precincts  of  Judaism.  He  satisfied  his  highest  tastes 
and  desires  outside  the  Jewish  camp,  while  in  Judaism 
he  only  perceived  a  few  colorless  doctrines,  which 
could  be  had  elsewhere,  and  a  few  cold  liturgical 
ceremonies,  which  seldom  appealed  to  him.  He  was 
often  forced  to  ask  himself,  "Why  am  I  a  Jew?" — a 
question  which,  in  its  very  form,  implies  a  negation, 
and  which,  to  our  profound  shame,  was  and  still  is 
heard  from  official  representatives  of  Judaism  in  the 
pulpit. 

To  be  sure,  the  picture  I  have  just  drawn  applies 
only  to  certain  sections  of  our  people.  "Israel  is  not 
yet  forsaken,  nor  is  Judah  of  his  God,  though  their 
land  be  filled  with  sin  against  the  Holy  One  of  Israel." 
Large  numbers  of  our  people  still  cling  to  Judaism 
with  all  their  heart,  their  soul  and  their  substance,  and 
see  in  it  the  consummation  of  their  lives.  But  we 
are  no  doubt  on  a  slanting  plane,  and,  unless  we 
check  ourselves  in  time  and  retrace  our  steps  to  the 
top,  we  shall  roll  down  the  precipice  whence  there  is 
no  return. 

If,  therefore,  Judaism  is  to  be  preserved  amidst 
the  new  conditions;  if,  lacking,  as  it  does,  all  outward 
support,  it  is  still  to  withstand  the  pressure  of  the 
surrounding  influences,  it  must  again  break  the 
narrow  frame  of  a  creed  and  resume  its  original  func- 
tion as  a  culture,  as  the  expression  of  the  Jewish 
spirit  and  the  whole  life  of  the  Jews.  It  will  not 
confine  itself  to  a  few  metaphysical  doctrines,  which 
affect  the  head  and  not  the  heart,  and  a  few  official 
ceremonies,  which  affect  neither  the  head  nor  the 
heart,  but  will  encircle  the  whole  life  of  the  Jew  and 


270  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

give  content  and  color  to  its  highest  functions  and 
activities. 

Perhaps  two  illustrations  derived  from  historical 
facts,  the  one  belonging  to  the  Jewish-Arabic  period, 
the  other  to  our  own  age,  will  bring  out  more  clearly 
than  can  any  abstract  exposition  the  different  results 
of  these  two  different  conceptions  of  Judaism. 

There  is  scarcely  any  civilization  in  which  poetry, 
the  rhythmic  sentence  and  the  rhymed  word,  occupies 
so  prominent  a  place  as  in  Arabic  civilization  and  in 
the  cultures  dependent  on  it.  xA.ll  classes  and  occupa- 
tions worshipped  with  equal  devotion  at  its  shrine. 
The  starving  nomad  of  the  desert,  the  prince  on  the 
throne ,  the  frivolous  comedian  and  the  grave  scholar,  all 
loved  and  practised  the  art  of  rhyme.  It  was  the 
label  of  fashion,  the  touch-stone  of  genius,  a  source 
of  income,  and  a  fountain  of  delight.  When  the 
Jews  came  in  contact  with  Arabic  culture  the  only 
poetry  they  had  created  outside  the  Bible  was  the  so- 
called  Piyyut,  a  more  or  less  uncouth  form  of  poetry 
which  merely  served  liturgical  purposes.  But  the 
Judaism  of  that  period,  which  embraced  all  that 
had  any  connection  with  Jewish  life,  soon  took 
cognizance  of  the  new  factor.  It  introduced  the  form 
and  spirit  of  Arabic  poetry  into  the  Hebrew  language, 
and  the  mediaeval  Hebrew  poetry,  the  richest  after 
the  Biblical,  sprang  up,  singing  not  only  of  God,  His 
land  and  His  people,  but  also  of  matters  far  less 
divine — of  wine,  woman,  and  all  the  moods  and  pas- 
sions of  the  human  heart.  Moses  Maimonides,  who 
from  his  high  metaphysical  observatory  looked  down 
upon  poetry  as  a  meaningless  waste  of  time,  indig- 
nantly  protested   against   the   use,   or  abuse,   of   the 


THE  PROBLEMS  OF  JUDAISM  IN  AMERICA       271 

sacred  tongue  for  contents  of  so  frivolous  a  nature. 
But  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  secular  Hebrew 
poetry,  however  slight  its  connection  with  Jewish 
religion,  had  as  much  share  in  attracting  and  attaching 
to  Judaism  the  beaux  esprits  of  the  period  as  had 
Maimonides'  metaphysics  in  keeping  within  the 
precincts  of  Judaism  the  philosophical  skeptics  of 
the  age. 

And  now  for  our  own  time.  There  is  scarcely  any- 
thing in  modern  life  which  is  so  characteristic  an 
expression  of  the  soul  of  a  people  and  so  apt  to 
arouse  the  emotions  of  its  members  as  is  music.  The 
language  of  the  angels,  as  it  has  been  styled,  has  now 
become  a  means  of  expression  of  the  whole  of  hu- 
manity. There  is  no  nation,  whether  standing  on  the 
lowest  or  the  highest  nmg  of  the  ladder  of  civilization, 
which  does  not  enshrine  its  joys  and  sorrows,  its 
memories  and  hopes,  in  song  and  tune.  The  Jews 
have  been  blessed  with  an  exceptional  gift  for  this 
divine  art.  They  have  as  composers  and  performers 
enriched  the  musical  repertoire  of  almost  every  nation. 
Dozens  of  Jewish  musicians,  though  keeping  their 
Judaism  in  strict  incognito,  arrive  every  season  in 
this  country.  But  modern  Judaism,  which  has 
curtailed  its  functions  down  to  those  of  a  creed,  has 
no  room  for  the  talents  of  its  children.  And  while  even 
the  hapless  Ghetto  has  been  able  to  breathe  forth  its 
woe  in  strains  peculiar  to  it,  modern  Judaism,  with 
all  its  freedom  and  prosperity,  is  deprived  of  this 
sweetest  of  arts,  and  even  in  its  places  of  worship  has  to 
depend  on  the  talents  of  non-Jews. 

Such  a  Judaism  of  freedom  and  culture  as  advo- 
cated above  will  not  be  a  mere  reproduction  of  the 


272  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

Judaism  of  the  Ghetto.  It  will  have  to  take  in  and 
digest  the  elements  of  other  cultures,  and  will  seek  and 
meet  new  conditions  and  interests.  This  modern 
Judaism  will  evolve  from  the  Judaism  preceding  it, 
as  did  Talmudic  Judaism  from  Biblical,  philosophical 
Judaism  from  Talmudism,  Mysticism  from  Jewish 
philosophy,  Hassidism  from  Rabbinism.  It  will 
develop  and  be  modified  along  the  lines  of  its  history, 
prompted  by  inner  necessity,  not  by  dictation  from 
without.  While  the  Judaism  of  isolation  accentuated 
the  ceremonial  side  of  Jewish  life  and  crystalized 
itself  by  a  natural  process  into  an  Or  ah  Hayyim, — a 
"Mode  of  Living"  (as  the  ceremonial  part  of  the 
Shulhati  Arukh  is  entitled), — the  modern  phase  of 
Judaism  will  probably  tend  to  emphasize  more 
strongly  its  cultural  aspects.  While  it  will  endeavor 
to  preserve  all  those  features  of  Jewish  practice  which 
give  shape  as  well  as  color  and  vigor  to  Judaism,  it 
will  develop  and  call  forth  all  those  powers  of  the 
Jewish  spirit  which  will  be  apt  to  supplement  or 
counteract  the  influences  of  modern  life.  It  will  give 
full  scope  to  our  religious  genius,  but  will  also  foster 
all  other  departments  of  the  Jewish  intellect.  It  will 
develop  our  literature,  create  or  preserve  Jewish  art 
in  all  its  functions,  stimulate  and  further  Jewish 
scholarship,  so  as  to  make  it  a  powerful  factor  in  the 
strengthening  of  the  Jewish  consciousness.  It  will  re- 
organize and  put  on  a  firmer  basis  the  Jewish  edd- 
cation  of  our  children,  who  are  the  pledge  of  our 
future,  and  thus  create  the  basis  and  sounding-board 
for  all  other  Jewish  activities.  It  will  regulate  our 
spiritual  demand  and  supply,  and  will  make  Judaism 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  JUDAISM  IN  AMERICA        273 

a  living,  flourishing,  impregnable  organism  that  de- 
serves to  be  loved,  to  be  respected,  to  be  lived  for. 

If  such  a  Judaism,  presenting  a  harmonious  union 
between  the  culture  of  the  Jewish  people  and  that  of 
the  other  nations  is  possible  in  the  Dispersion — and 
that  it  is  possible  is  convincingly  shown  by  our 
history — the  only  place  where  it  has  a  full  chance  of 
realization  is  America.  For  America — this  even  the 
Zionist,  who  works  and  hopes  for  the  establishment  of 
a  center  of  Jewish  culture  in  its  native  land,  will 
freely  and  readily  admit — America  is  fast  becoming 
the  center  of  the  Jewish  people  of  the  Diaspora. 
Jewish  history  teaches  us  that,  despite  the  centri- 
fugal forces  of  the  Dispersion,  Judaism  was  seldom 
without  a  center,  and  that  this  center,  following  the 
wanderings  of  Jewry,  moved  from  place  to  place. 
The  Jewish  center  shifted  from  Palestine  to  Babylon, 
from  Babylon  to  Spain,  from  Spain  to  Poland  and 
Russia.  It  is  now  shifting  before  our  very  eyes  to 
this  country.  America  is  already  the  center  of  the 
Jews.  As  regards  the  number  of  its  Jewish  population 
it  is  second  to  none  but  to  Russia,  which  is  in  a  state 
of  dissolution,  and  every  steamship  that  anchors  in 
our  harbors  increases  our  prospects  for  becoming 
hrst  instead  of  second.  But  America  has  every 
chance  of  also  becoming  the  center  of  Judaism,  of 
the  spiritual  life  of  the  Jewish  people  in  the  Dispersion, 
Those  who  are  on  the  spot  may,  with  the  self-criticism 
so  characteristic  of  our  race,  be  slow  or  even  reluctant 
to  recognize  it.  People  who  stand  in  front  of  a 
painting  and  see  mere  blotches  of  greasy  color  are 
seldom  able  to  realize  the  purport  of  the  painting  as  a 
whole.     But    there    is    no    thinking    Jew    outside    of 


274  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

America  whose  eyes  are  not  turned  towards  this  coun- 
try as  the  center  of  Judaism  in  the  nearest  future. 
America  presents  a  happy  combination  of  so  manifold 
and  favorable  circumstances  as  have  seldom,  if  ever, 
been  equalled  in  the  history  of  the  Diaspora.  It  has 
the  numbers  which  are  necessary  for  the  creation  of 
a  cultural  center.  It  possesses  the  economic  pros- 
perity indispensable  for  a  successful  spiritual  develop- 
ment. The  freedom  enjoyed  by  the  Jews  is  not  the 
outcome  of  emancipation,  purchased  at  the  cost  of 
national  suicide,  but  the  natural  product  of  American 
civilization.  The  idea  of  liberty  as  evolved  by  the 
Anglo-Saxon  mind  does  not  merely  mean,  as  it  often 
does  in  Europe,  the  privilege  of  selling  new  clothes 
instead  of  old,  but  signifies  liberty  of  conscience,  the 
full,  untrammelled  development  of  the  soul  as  well 
as  the  body.  The  true  American  spirit  understands 
and  respects  the  traditions  and  associations  of  other 
nationalities,  and  on  its  vast  area  numerous  races  live 
peaceably  together,  equally  devoted  to  the  interests 
of  the  land.  The  influx  of  Jewish  immigrants  in  the 
past  and  present  brought  and  brings  to  these  shores 
the  enormous  resources  of  the  Ghetto,  and  presents 
American  Jewry  with  a  variety  of  Jewish  types  which 
will  be  of  far-reaching  significance  in  its  further  de- 
velopment. In  short,  this  country  has  at  its  disposal 
all  the  materials  necessary  for  the  upbuilding  of  a 
large,  powerful  center  of  Judaism,  and  it  only  depends 
on  the  American  Jews  whether  these  potentialities 
will  ever  become  realities. 

But  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  American  Jews  will 
not  be  forgetful  of  the  task — as  gigantic  as  it  is 
honorable — which    lies   before    them.     He   who    feels 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  JUDAISM  IN  AMERICA        275 

the  pulse  of  American-Jewish  life  can  detect,  amidst 
numerous  indications  to  the  contrary,  the  beginnings 
of  a  Jewish  renaissance,  the  budding  forth  of  a  new 
spirit.  The  Jews  of  America,  as  represented  in 
their  noblest  and  best,  display  larger  Jewish  sym- 
pathies, a  broader  outlook  on  Jewish  life,  a  deeper 
understanding  of  the  spiritual  interests  of  Judaism 
than  most  of  their  brethren  of  the  Mosaic  persuasion 
in  the  lands  of  assimilation  and  emancipation.  The 
type  of  the  modern  American  Jew  who  is  both  modern 
and  Jewish,  who  combines  American  energy  and  suc- 
cess with  that  manliness  and  self-assertion,  which  is 
imbibed  with  American  freedom,  is  becoming  a  species, 
while  in  other  countries  the  same  characteristics  are  to 
be  met  with  in  but  a  few  exceptional  individuals. 
The  American  Jews  are  fully  alive  to  the  future  of 
their  country  as  a  center  of  Jewish  culture.  They 
build  not  only  hospitals  and  infirmaries,  but  also 
schools  and  colleges;  they  welcome  not  only  immi- 
grants, but  also  libraries;  not  only  tradesmen  and 
laborers,  but  also  scholars  and  writers.  Every- 
where we  perceive  the  evidence  of  a  new  life.  To  be 
sure,  we  are  only  at  the  beginning.  Gigantic  and 
complicated  tasks  confront  us  in  the  future.  The 
enormous  stores  of  latent  Jewish  energy  that  are 
formlessly  piled  up  in  this  country  will  have  to  be 
transformed  into  living  power.  The  dead  capital 
which  we  constantly  draw  from  the  Ghetto  will  have 
to  be  made  into  a  working  capital  to  produce  new 
values.  We  first  of  all  have  to  lay  our  foundation: 
to  rescue  the  Jewish  education  of  our  future  generation 
from  the  chaos  in  which  it  is  now  entangled.  But  we 
are  on  the  right  road.     The  American  Jews  will  take 


276  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

to  heart  the  lesson  afforded  by  modern  Jewish  history 
in  Europe.  They  will  not  bury  Judaism  in  synagogues 
and  temples,  nor  imprison  it  in  charitable  institutions. 
They  will  work  and  live  for  a  Judaism  which  will 
compass  all  phases  of  Jewish  life  and  thought;  which 
will  not  be  a  faint  sickly  hot-house  plant,  but,  as  it  was 
in  the  days  of  old,  "a  tree  of  life  for  those  who  hold  it 
fast,  bestowing  happiness  on  those  who  cling  to  it." 
But  will  a  Judaism  that  does  not  confine  itself  to 
synagogues  and  hospitals,  but  endeavors  to  embrace 
the  breadth  and  depth  of  modern  life,  leave  sufficient 
room  in  the  heart  of  the  Jew  for  the  interests  and  de- 
mands of  his  country,  or,  to  put  it  into  the  mould  of  a 
current  formula,  is  Judaism,  and  a  Judaism  of  the 
kind  advocated  above,  compatible  with  Americanism? 
The  people  who  thus  anxiously  inquire  betray  a  poor 
conception  of  human  psychology.  They  seem  to  think 
that  the  souls  of  men  are  like  those  cheap  musical 
slot-machines  which  can  only  play  a  single  tune. 
The  human  soul  is  characterized  not  by  uniformity 
but  by  variety.  The  higher  a  human  type,  the  more 
multifarious  its  interests,  the  more  manifold  its 
activities,  the  more  varied  its  affections.  That  a  full 
and  successful  participation  in  all  phases  of  Ameiican 
life  is  reconcilable  with  a  deep  attachment  to  Judaism 
in  all  its  aspects  is  sufficiently  warranted  by  the 
historical  precedent  of  the  Jewish-Arabic  period.  To 
be  sure,  in  blending  Judaism  with  Americanism  the 
edges  and  corners  will  have  to  be  levelled  on  both 
sides.  Compromises  will  be  unavoidable.  But  the 
happiest  of  marriages  is  a  series  of  mutual  compro- 
mises.    These    compromises    may    not    be    exactly 


THE  PROBLEMS  OF  JUDAISM  IN  AMERICA       277 


identical  with  those  of  the  Jewish-Arabic  era.  Per- 
haps not  all  our  Jewish  dignitaries  will  be  immersed  in 
the  niceties  of  Hebrew  philology,  like  Hasdai  Ibn 
Shaprut,  and  not  all  our  ministers  of  State  will  be 
Talmudic  lecturers  and  writers,  like  Samuel  Ibn 
Nagdela.  But  these  compromises  will  never  be  such 
as  to  obliterate  or  mutilate  the  character  of  either 
party.  Judaism  and  Americanism  will  not  be  inter- 
secting, but  concentric  circles.  In  the  great  palace  of 
American  civilization  we  shall  occupy  our  own  corner, 
which  we  will  decorate  and  beautify  to  the  best  of  our 
taste  and  ability,  and  make  it  not  only  a  center  of 
attraction  for  the  members  of  our  family,  but  also  an 
object  of  admiration  for  all  the  dwellers  of  the  palace. 
There  is  an  old  rabbinic  saying  to  the  effect  that 
after  the  destruction  of  the  Temple  the  gift  of  prophecy 
passed  over  to  children  and  fools.  I  am  not  young 
enough  to  claim  the  privilege  of  a  child,  nor  am  I 
modest  enough  to  use  the  pretext  of  a  fool.  True, 
prophecy  without  inspiration,  which  predicts  the 
future  as  a  matter  of  fact,  is  childish  and  foolish, 
because  no  human  eye  can  perceive  and  no  human 
mind  can  calculate  the  innumerable  and  imponderable 
effects  of  the  concatenation  of  human  events.  But 
prophecy  as  a  matter  of  hope,  the  prediction  of  the 
future  not  as  it  will  be,  but  as  it  ought  to  be,  is  in- 
dispensable for  all  those  who  have,  or  desire  to  have, 
a  clear  conception  of  their  duties  towards  the  coming 
generations.  And  when  we  thus  try  to  penetrate  the 
mist  that  encircles  the  horizon  of  the  present,  a  vision 
unfolds  itself  before  our  mind's  eye,  presenting  a  pic- 
ture of  the  future   American    Israel.     We  perceive  a 


278  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

community  great  in  numbers,  mighty  in  power, 
enjoying  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness: 
true  life,  not  mere  breathing  space;  full  liberty, 
not  mere  elbow  room;  real  happiness,  not  that 
of  pasture  beasts;  actively  participating  in  the 
civic,  social  and  economic  progress  of  the  country, 
fully  sharing  and  increasing  its  spiritual  possessions 
and  acquisitions,  doubling  its  joys,  halving  its  sorrows; 
yet  deeply  rooted  in  the  soil  of  Judaism,  clinging  to 
its  past,  working  for  its  future,  true  to  its  traditions, 
faithful  to  its  aspirations,  one  in  sentiment  with  their 
brethren  wherever  they  are,  attached  to  the  land  of 
their  fathers  as  the  cradle  and  resting  place  of  the 
Jewish  spirit;  men  with  straight  backs  and  raised 
heads,  with  big  hearts  and  strong  minds,  with  no 
conviction  crippled,  with  no  emotion  stifled,  with 
souls  harmoniously  developed,  self-centred  and  self- 
reliant;  receiving  and  resisting,  not  yielding  like  wax 
to  every  impress  from  the  outside,  but  blending  the 
best  they  possess  with  the  best  they  encounter;  not  a 
horde  of  individuals,  but  a  set  of  individualities, 
adding  a  new  note  to  the  richness  of  American  life, 
leading  a  new  current  into  the  stream  of  American 
civilization ;  not  a  formless  crowd .  of  taxpayers  and 
voters,  but  a  sharply  marked  community,  distinct  and 
distinguished,  trusted  for  its  loyalty,  respected  for 
its  dignity,  esteemed  for  its  traditions,  valued  for  its 
aspirations,  a  community  such  as  the  Prophet  of  the 
Exile  saw  it  in  his  vision:  "And  marked  will  be  their 
seed  among  the  nations,  and  their  offspring  among  the 
peoples.  Everyone  that  will  see  them  will  point  to 
them  as  a  community  blessed  by  the  Lord." 


XVI 

THE  PROBLEM  OF  JEWISH   EDUCATION   IN 
AMERICA* 

THE  first  systematic  attempt  to  deal  with  the 
problem  of  Jewish  education  in  America  in  its 
various  phases  is  of  recent  origin. 

In  order  to  realize  the  magnitude  of  the  problem 
and  the  peculiar  difficulties  which  constantly  present 
themselves  in  coping  with  it,  it  is  necessary  to  take 
a  larger  view  of  our  topic  and  to  inquire  into  the  gen- 
eral historical  and  cultural  conditions  which  have 
brought  about  the  present  educational  situation  in 
American  Jewry  and  the  remarkable  complications 
connected  with  it. 

Our  inquiry  must  naturally  begin  with  the  history 
and  composition  of  American  Jewry  as  it  is  consti- 
tuted at  present. 

The  Jewry  of  America  is  the  product  of  three  suc- 
cessive waves  of  immigration,  which  may  be  desig- 
nated as  the  Spanish,  the  German,  and  the  Russian. 


*First  published  in  the  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of 
Education  for  the  Year  ended  June  30,  1913  (Department  of  the 
Interior.  Bureau  of  Education,  Washington,  D.  C),  under  the 
title  "The  Problem  of  Jewish  Education  in  America  and  the 
Bureau  of  Education  of  the  Jewish  Community  of  New  York 
City."  The  latter  part  of  this  article,  dealing  with  the  Bureau 
of  Education,  has  been  omitted,  as  most  of  the  facts  contained 
therein  are  now  antiquated. 


280  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

The  first  Jews  who  came  to  this  country  were  de- 
scendants of  those  who  had  been  exiled  from  the 
Iberian  Peninsula  in  1492,  the  year  in  which  America 
was  discovered.  They  came  to  this  country  prin- 
cipally by  way  of  central  and  southern  America. 
For  reasons  which  need  not  detain  us  here,  their  num- 
bers have  gradually  decreased;  and,  while  there  still 
exist,  as  a  monument  to  their  past  glory,  a  few  of 
their  congregations  with  attached  schools,  and  though 
a  number  of  them  still  take  an  active  and  honorable 
part  in  American  Jewish  affairs,  they  have  yielded 
their  predominant  influence  to  the  more  recent  set- 
tlers and  represent  no  distinct  phase  of  the  Jewish  prob- 
lem. Very  recently  a  new  immigration  of  so-called 
Spanish  Jews,  proceeding  from  the  Turkish  Empire 
and  the  Balkans,  has  been  wending  its  course  to  this 
country  and  is  slowly  forcing  itself  upon  the  atten- 
tion of  Jewish  workers  and  educators,  but  it  is  not 
yet  of  sufficient  importance  to  affect  the  general  as- 
pect of  Jewish  life  or  Jewish  education. 

The  second  wave  of  Jewish  immigration  came  from 
Germany,  principally  from  the  south  of  Germany, 
and,  outside  of  a  number  of  individuals  who  came 
early  in  colonial  times,  extended  over  four  decades, 
between  the  years  1830  and  1870.  It  began  as  a  result 
of  the  distress  caused  by  the  Napoleonic  wars  and 
reached  its  climax  in  consequence  of  the  revolutionary 
upheavels  in  central  Europe  in  1848. 

To  appreciate  the  educational  standards  and  ideas 
which  these  settlers  brought  with  them,  and  which 
they  subsequently  tried  to  adapt  to  their  new  environ- 
ment, we  must  bear  in  mind  that  the  majority  of  these 


JEWISH   EDUCATION  IN  AMERICA  281 


immigrants  came  from  rural  communities,  for  the 
Jews  of  Germany  of  that  period  lived  to  a  far  greater 
extent  on  the  land  than  they  do  at  present.  The 
great  cultural  reform  inaugurated  by  Moses  Mendels- 
sohn (1729-1786),  which  in  a  surprisingly  short  time 
had  pushed  the  German  Jews  from  the  isolated  re- 
cesses of  their  ghettoes  to  the  forefront  of  European 
civilization,  did  not  have  the  same  revolutionizing 
and  frequently  disintegrating  effect  upon  the  smaller 
communities.  Yet  it  succeeded  in  conquering  their 
deep-seated  prejudice  against  secular  education. 
The  Jews  even  in  the  smaller  communities  spoke  the 
same  language  (though  often  with  a  slight  dialectic 
modification),  wore  the  same  dress,  and  were,  above 
all,  molded  by  the  same  education  as  their  fellow 
Germans;  and  they  lived,  on  the  whole,  on  friendly 
terms  with  their  non-Jewish  neighbors.  As  far  as 
Judaism  is  concerned,  they  were,  with  rare  excep- 
tions, strictly  orthodox,  loyal  to  the  teachings  of  their 
ancestral  religion  and  staunch  in  the  observance  of 
its  practices.  Their  Jewish  educational  standards 
were  simple,  like  their  conditions  of  life.  The  reading 
of  the  Hebrew  prayers,  a  fair  acquaintance  with  the 
Five  Books  of  Moses  in  the  original,  with  a  few  selec- 
tions from  the  other  books  of  the  Bible,  a  working 
knowledge  of  the  Jewish  ritual,  and,  as  a  token  of 
particular  excellence,  a  glimpse  into  post-biblical 
Hebrew  literature,  exhausted  the  educational  ambi- 
tions of  these  simple-minded,  but  staunch-hearted 
Jewish  immigrants. 

The    impetus   which    drove    the   German    Jews    to 
these  shores  was  not  a  sudden  outbreak,  but  a  slow 


282  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

and  steady  process,  and  their  immigration  proceeded 
in  a  similar  manner.  Settling  at  a  time  when  the 
opportunities  in  this  country  were  many,  the  German 
Jewish  immigrants,  who  combined  German  industry 
and  love  of  discipline  with  Jewish  sobriety  and  in- 
telligence, made  rapid  strides  and  attained  influence 
and  prosperity.  They  found  it  comparatively  easy  to 
reproduce  their  religious  and  educational  institutions 
in  the  new  environment.  Their  religious  life  centered 
around  their  newly  established  congregations,  which, 
as  a  result  of  their  love  of  order  and  their  marke'd 
organizing  ability,  soon  became  flourishing  institu- 
tions. Their  educational  demands  were  supplied  by 
the  so-called  congregational  school  which  was  con- 
nected with  the  congregation  and  was  generally 
under  the  supervision  of  its  rabbi.1 

Another  educational  factor  was  soon  added  in 
the  form  of  the  Sunday  School,  so  called  because  the 
instruction  there  was  limited  to  Sunday  mornings. 
The  Sunday  school  was  originally  independent  of  the 
congregation,  although  this  changed  considerably  in 
the  later  course  of  development.2     Such  a  school  was 


1  Some  of  the  earliest  Jewish  schools  established  in  this 
country  supplied  at  the  same  time  a  secular  education.  A  few 
schools  founded  subsequently  by  Russian  Jews  on  a  similar 
parochial  plan  are  still  in  existence  today.  But  as  they  are  too 
few  to  affect  the  problem  of  Jewish  education  as  a  whole,  they 
have  been  left  out  of  account  in  the  present  sketch. 

2  At  present  most  Jewish  Sunday  schools  are  connected  with 
congregations,  mostly  of  the  reform  type.  "Congregational 
Schools"  are  now  usually  those  which  are  connected  with  con- 
gregations of  a  more  conservative  type  and  hold  more  than  one 
session  a  week. 


JEWISH  EDUCATION  IN  AMERICA  283 

founded  as  early  as  1838  in  Philadelphia,  largely  in 
cooperation  with  the  Spanish  Jewish  element;  and 
the  progress  of  this  type  of  educat  onal  institution 
may  fairly  be  gauged  from  the  fact  that  the  school 
just  mentioned  has  gradually  grown  into  an  associa- 
tion which,  at  its  seventy-fifth  anniversary  (March 
2,  1913),  maintained  in  that  city  thirteen  schools, 
with  more  than  4,000  children. 

The  problem  of  Jewish  education  as  affecting  this 
section  of  American  Jewry  was  still  more  simplified 
by  the  advent  of  the  so-called  Jewish  reform  move- 
ment, which  was  introduced  from  Germany  after  1850. 
Under  its  influence  most  of  the  Jewish  religious 
ceremonies  were  abolished  and  the  role  of  Hebrew  as 
a  religious  medium  was  considerably  diminished. 
Jewish  education,  thus  freed  from  its  heaviest  burden, 
was  confined  practically  to  a  general  acquaintance 
with  the  Hebrew  prayers  still  retained  in  the  reformed 
liturgy,  an  exposition  of  the  Jewish  principles  of  faith 
and  a  smattering  of  Jewish  history. 

The  generosity  and  spirit  of  organization  which, 
aided  by  greater  prosperity,  are  so  admirably  dis- 
played in  the  philanthropic  institutions  of  this  section 
of  the  American  Jewish  community  have  also,  though 
to  a  lesser  extent,  manifested  themselves  in  their 
educational  endeavors.  The  Union  of  American 
Hebrew  Congregations  and  the  Central  Conference 
of  American  Rabbis,  the  two  largest  organizations  of 
Reform  Judaism,  have  given,  particularly  in  the  last 
few  years,  a  great  deal  of  attention  to  the  problem  of 
Jewish  education.  The  former  organization  has 
established  a  synagogue  and  school  extension  depart- 


284  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

merit;  it  is  also  interested,  in  conjunction  with  the 
latter  organization,  in  the  publication  of  Jewish  text- 
books. 

An  attempt  to  organize  the  Jewish  Sunday  schools 
in  the  eastern  States  was  recently  made  in  New  York. 
The  Jewish  Chautauqua  Society,  founded  in  1893 
by  Dr.  Henry  Berkowitz,  for  the  dissemination  of 
Jewish  religious  knowledge  is  developing  a  wide- 
spread activity,  which  includes  schoolwork,  though 
its  emphasis  is  directed  toward  the  Jewish  youth  of  a 
more  mature  age. 

In  this  connection  mention  should  also  be  made 
of  other  educational  institutions,  which,  though 
largely  called  forth  by  the  later  influx  of  the  Russian 
immigrants  and  primarily  designed  for  their  benefit, 
yet  owe  their  origin  to  the  generosity  and  organizing 
ability  of  the  German  Jews.  Such  institutions, 
serving  partly  other  purposes  than  those  of  primary 
Jewish  education,  are  the  Hebrew  Union  College  in 
Cincinnati  (founded  in  1875)  and  the  Jewish  Theo- 
logical Seminary  of  America  in  New  York  (founded 
in  1886,  reorganized  in  1902)  for  the  training  of  rabbis, 
the  two  teacher's  institutes  subsequently  founded 
under  the  respective  auspices  of  these  two  colleges, 
the  Gratz  College  of  Philadelphia  founded  in  1875 
also  for  the  training  of  Jewish  teachers,  the  Dropsie 
College  for  Hebrew  and  Cognate  Learning  (founded 
in  1907)  for  postgraduate  studies  and  a  few  other 
agencies  for  the  propagation  of  Jewish  knowledge, 
which  may  be  left  out  of  consideration  in  this  sketch. 

Fundamentally  different  both  in  its  causes  and 
consequences  was  the  third  wave  of  Jewish  immigra- 


JEWISH  EDUCATION   IN  AMERICA  285 


tion.  It  is  generally  designated  as  the  Russian, 
because  the  majority  of  the  immigrants  of  this  class 
came  from  the  Russian  Empire,  including  Poland. 
It  must,  however,  be  added  that  this  wave  includes, 
as  well,  the  large  Jewish  centers  bordering  on  Russia, 
such  as  Galicia,  Roumania,  and,  to  a  lesser  extent, 
Hungary — in  short,  that  part  of  Europe  which,  on 
account  of  its  cultural  status,  has  been  cleverly 
dubbed  "Semi-Asia". 

In  spite  of  the  slow  and  grinding  pressure  of  eco- 
nomic misery  and  political  discrimination,  to  which 
the  Russian  Jews  had  long  been  subjected,  the 
Jewish  immigration  from  Russia,  with  a  few  excep- 
tions, started  only  after  1882,  as  an  immediate  result 
of  the  massacres  and  of  the  anti-Jewish  restrictions 
which  inaugurated  the  reign  of  Czar  Alexander  III. 
When  the  immigration  broke  out,  it  did  so,  in  contra- 
distinction from  the  German-Jewish  immigration, 
with  the  force  of  a  volcanic  eruption.  It  was  also 
volcanic  as  regards  its  numbers,  for,  while  the  German- 
Jewish  immigration  affected  but  a  part  of  German 
Jewry,  which  altogether  amounts  to  half  a  million, 
the  immigration  from  Russia  and  the  adjoining 
countries  drew  on  a  population  of  no  less  than  eight 
millions.  The  vastness  and  suddenness  of  this 
exodus  determined  to  a  large  extent  the  fate  of  the  new 
settlers.  For  they  naturally  drifted  toward  large 
centers,  and,  in  consequence,  both  the  problem  of 
Judaism  and  the  problem  of  Jewish  education  as- 
sumed an  essentially  different  and  a  far  more  com- 
plicated character. 

But  much  more  even  than  by  these  external  factors 


286  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

was  the  problem  of  Jewish  education  among  these 
newcomers  determined  by  their  religious  and  cultural 
make-up,  which  was  vastly  different  from  that  of  the 
German  Jews.  The  complete  cultural  and  social 
isolation  in  which  the  Jews  of  Poland  and  Russia 
had  lived  for  centuries  continued  practically  undis- 
turbed till  very  recently.  The  influence  of  the  Men- 
delssohnian  movement  in  Germany,  which  pene- 
trated even  into  Russia,  affected  but  a  thin  layer  of 
Russian  Jewry,  and  the  far  more  extensive  and  far 
more  radical  disturbances  in  present-day  Russian 
Jewry  have  not  as  yet  asserted  themselves  sufficiently 
to  affect  seriously  the  problem  of  Jewish  education 
in  this  country. 

The  strict  isolation  in  which,  owing  to  a  variety 
of  historic  causes,  the  Jews  of  the  Polish  Kingdom  had 
lived  for  centuries  was  even  more  accentuated  when 
Poland  came  under  the  sway  of  Russia.  For,  by  con- 
fining the  Jews  to  the  Pale  of  Settlement  and  further- 
more excluding  them  from  the  villages  in  that  area, 
the  Russian  Government  drove  them  into  the  con- 
gested towns  and  cities,  in  which  they  often  formed 
the  overwhelming  majority  of  the  population.  They 
lived  in  complete  segregation  from  their  neighbors, 
and  the  non-Jews  were  as  much  of  a  puzzle  to  the 
Jews  as  the  latter  were  to  the  non-Jews.  The  terrible 
economic  and  political  misery  to  which  the  Russian 
Jews  were  condemned  made  them  look  upon  the 
whole  non-Jewish  population  as  their  natural  ene- 
mies, which  in  reality  they  were;  and  in  their  despair 
they  clung  more  fondly  than  ever  to  the  soothing 
comfort   and   uplifting   influence   of   Jewish    life   and 


JEWISH  EDUCATION  IN  AMERICA  287 

doctrine.  General  secular  education  was  at  a  low 
ebb  in  Russia;  it  was  certainly  far  inferior  both  in 
extent  and  intensity  to  Jewish  educational  require- 
ments. Yet  even  these  meagre  educational  advan- 
tages were  withheld  from  the  Jews;  and  when  in  a 
whim  of  despotic  generosity,  as  happened  several 
times  in  the  course  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the 
Russian  Government  decided  to  draw,  or  rather  to 
drag,  the  Jews  to  the  fountain  of  secular  education 
it  was — by  no  means,  unjustifiably — suspected  by 
them  as  an  effort  to  land  them  in  the  fold  of  the 
Greek  Orthodox  Church.  No  wonder,  therefore,  that 
the  Jews  of  Russia  anxiously  shunned  all  general  edu- 
cation and  lived  their  own  life.  They  used  their 
own  language  (Yiddish  as  a  vernacular  and  Hebrew 
as  a  cultural  medium) ;  they  wore  their  own  dress,  and 
were  in  every  manifestation  of  life  Jews,  and  nothing 
but  Jews. 

Now  the  cap  and  corner  stone  of  Russian  Jewish 
life  was  religion — religion  as  taught  by  the  Bible  and 
interpreted  and  embodied  in  definite  practices  and 
institutions  by  post-biblical  or  rabbinical  Judaism. 
To  rabbinical  Judaism,  however,  even  more  so  than 
to  biblical  Judaism,  religion  is  inseparable  from  two 
fundamental  aspects.  It  is,  on  the  one  hand,  not 
merely  a  matter  of  faith,  forming  a  set  of  abstract 
beliefs,  but  a  complete  system  of  living  which  embraces 
the  most  significant  and  the  least  significant  functions 
in  practical  life.  It  is,  on  the  other  hand,  a  matter 
of  knowledge  and  intellectual  endeavor.  Hence, 
practical  piety  and  religious  knowledge,  or  scholarship, 
formed  and  still  form  the  Boaz  and  Jachin  of  old- 


2<s,x  PAST  AND   PRESENT 

fashioned  Russian  Jewish  life.  In  this  connection 
we  are  particularly  interested  in  the  second  factor, 
and  it  may  be  said  without  exaggeration  that  at  no 
time  during  the  long  duration  of  Jewish  history  and 
in  no  place  throughout  the  world-wide  extent  of  the 
Jewish  Diaspora  has  this  great  intellectual  ideal  of 
rabbinical  Judaism,  which  nearly  2,000  years  ago 
crystallized  itself  in  a  comprehensive  system  of  pri- 
mary and  secondary  education,  been  so  intensely 
developed  and  so  completely  realized  as  in  Russian 
Jewish  life. 

To  those  who  can  not  fall  back  upon  their  own 
personal  recollections  it  is  difficult  to  convey  even  re- 
motely the  tremendous  importance  of  this  intellectual 
or  educational  factor  among  the  Jews  of  Russia. 
Russian  Jewry  presented  the  unique  spectacle  of  a 
community  in  which  the  social  stratification  was  solely 
determined  by  knowledge  or  intellectual  achievement, 
whose  whole  energy,  unaffected  by  economic  con- 
siderations and  undiverted  by  the  need  of  recreation 
or  even  solicitude  for  physical  -well-being,  was 
fiercely  concentrated  on  the  acquisition  of  knowledge 
for  the  sake  of  knowledge.  The  ideal  type  of  Russian 
Jewish  life  was  the Lamden,  the  scholar.  The  highest 
ambition  of  the  Russian  Jew  was  that  his  sons,  and 
if  he  had  only  daughters,  that  his  sons-in-law  should 
be  scholars,  and  the  greatest  achievement  of  a  man's 
life  was  his  ability  to  provide  sufficiently  for  them,  so 
that,  relieved  from  economic  cares,  they  might  devote 
themselves  unrestrictedly  to  Jewish  learning.  As  a 
well-known  scholar  thoughtfully  puts  it,  among  the 
Jews   of    Poland   and    Russia   there   was   no    learned 


JEWISH  EDUCATION  IN  AMERICA  289 


estate,  not  because  there  were  no  scholars,  but  because 
the  people  itself  was  a  nation  of  students.1  To  be 
sure,  this  learning  was  one-sided.  Yet  it  was  both 
wide  and  deep,  for  it  embraced  the  almost  boundless 
domains  of  religious  Hebrew  literature,  and  involved 
the  knowledge  of  one  of  the  most  complicated  systems 
of  law  and  profound  theological  doctrines.  The  know- 
ledge of  the  Hebrew  prayers  and  of  the  Five  Books  of 
Moses,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  was  the  objective  ot 
German  Jewish  education,  would  not  have  been  suffi- 
cient to  save  the  Russian  Jew  from  the  most  terrible 
opprobrium — that  of  being  an  Am-Haaretz,  an 
ignoramus.  The  ability  to  understand  a  Talmudic 
text,  which  demands  years  of  preparation,  was  the 
minimum  requirement  for  one  who  wanted  to  be  of 
any  consequence  in  the  community.2  It  is  obvious, 
therefore,  that  these  religious  ideals  and  educational 

1  Prof.  L.  Ginzberg,  The  Jewish  Primary  School  (reprint 
m  the  Jewish  Exponent,  Philadelphia,  1907),  p.  5. 

2  The  educational  standards  of  Russian  Jewish  life  may 
perhaps  be  best  illustrated  by  an  anecdote  which  was  told  to  the 
writer  by  a  friend.  The  latter,  a  native  of  southern  Russia,  in 
which  the  standards  of  Jewish  education  are  somewhat  lower, 
was  traveling  through  Lithuania,  which  is,  on  the  contrary, 
known  for  its  high  educational  level.  A  Jewish  coachman  by 
whom  this  gentleman  was  driven  was  muttering  something  in 
Hebrew.  On  being  asked  whether  he  was  reciting  the  Psalms 
(which  are  generally  recited  by  the  lower  Jewish  classes  in 
Russia),  the  coachman  indignantly  retorted:  "In  your  country 
they  may  be  satisfied  with  knowing  the  Psalms;  I  am  reciting  the 
Mishnah!"  The  Mishnah  is  a  code  of  law  (civil,  criminal,  and 
ritual)  upon  which  the  Talmud  is  based.  Imagine  in  any  other 
country  or  nation  a  driver  reciting  by  heart,  let  us  say,  the 
Justinian  Code! 


290  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

standards  of  Russian  Jewish  life  were  bound  to  call 
forth  a  distinct  set  of  educational  institutions  designed 
to  preserve  and  advance  these  ideals  and  standards. 

We  shall  now  proceed  to  describe  in  brief  the  edu- 
cational agencies  of  Russian  Jewry.  For  the  diffi- 
culty of  the  problem  of  American  Jewish  education 
largely  consists  in  the  fact  that  it  is  both  determin- 
ed and  hampered  by  these  models.  Before  describ- 
ing them,  however,  we  wish  to  call  attention  to  four 
general  characteristics  which  attach  to  all  of  them 
and  have  left  their  impress  upon  their  educational 
reproductions  in  this  country. 

First,  general  education  being  completely  neglected, 
Jewish  religious  education  in  Russia  took,  as  far 
as  time  and  attention  are  concerned,  the  place  of 
general  education.  Second,  Russian  Jewish  life  being 
completely  barred  from  a  normal  physical  and  eco- 
nomic development,  these  institutions  paid  no 
attention  whatsoever  to  hygienic  requirements  or  the 
demands  of  economic  life.  Third,  on  account  of  the 
marked  individualism  of  the  Russian  Jew  and  the 
lack  of  organizing  ability  produced  by  the  life  in  the 
ghetto,  these  educational  institutions  were  never 
formed  into  a  system,  but  remained  with  practically 
no  exception  disconnected,  individual  undertakings. 
Fourth,  owing  to  a  variety  of  historic  causes,  the 
Jewish  woman  was  expected  to  limit  herself  to  the 
religious  life  in  the  home  and  was  almost  entirely 
barred  from  the  domain  of  Jewish  religious  knowledge. 

The  first  and  most  important  educational  factor 
in  Russian  Jewish  life  was,  as  it  is  and  should  be 
everywhere — the  home.     From  the  very  dawn  of  its 


JEWISH  EDUCATION  IN  AMERICA  291 

consciousness,  the  child  was  made  familiar  with  the 
Jewish  religious  practices,  and  taught  to  pronounce,  or, 
more  correctly,  to  prattle  the  short  Hebrew  prayers 
and  benedictions  which  Judaism  prescribes  for  drink 
and  food  and  all  occasions  of  life.  Perhaps,  more  than 
by  all  descriptions  this  tendency  may  be  illustrated 
by  the  fact  that  Russian  Jewish  legend  admiringly 
narrates  of  some  of  its  saints,  that,  while  still  being 
nursed  (children  in  Russia  used  to  be  nursed  very 
late),  they  were  able  to  pronounce  the  Hebrew 
blessing  over  the  milk  which  they  drew  from  their 
mothers'  breasts. 

When  the  boy  was  five  years  old  (sometimes  even 
earlier)  he  was  sent  to  the  heder  (a  Hebrew  word 
designating  "room,"  in  all  probability  originally  the 
room  in  which  the  teacher  lived).  The  heder,  which 
is  a  very  ancient  Jewish  institution,  was,  at  least  as 
far  as  Russia  is  concerned,  not  a  communal  institu- 
tion, but  a  private  school  with  a  comparatively  small 
number  of  children,  ranging  from  fifty  to  as  few  as 
four. 

The  heder  may  be  subdivided  into  two  kinds: 

First,  the  elementary  heder  in  which  the  following 
subjects  were  taught:  Ivre,  or  Hebrew  reading,  for 
which  the  prayer  book  served  as  a  textbook,  and 
Humesh,  or  the  Five  Books  of  Moses  (later  with 
commentaries).  Characteristically  enough,  the  child 
began  with  the  Third  Book  of  Moses,  dealing  with 
the  complicated  system  of  Jewish  sacrifices  and  laws. 

Second,  the  advanced  heder,  in  which  the  study  of 
the  Talmud  (with  only  an  occasional  reading  of  the 
Bible)  formed  the  main  object  of  instruction.     Jewish 


292  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

history,  or  even  Biblical  history,  or  the  systematic 
teaching  of  religion  and  ethics  was  neglected,  largely 
because  Talmudic  literature  was  thought  to  offer, 
though  in  a  disconnected  manner,  sufficient  material 
for  both. 

The  hygienic  condition  of  the  heder  which  consisted, 
as  indicated  by  the  name,  of  a  single  room  in  which 
the  teacher  lived,  often  with  a  large  family,  was 
depressing.  The  hours  of  study  were  inconceivably 
long,  from  eight  in  the  morning  to  eight  in  the  evening 
in  the  elementary  heder,  and  from  seven  in  the  morn- 
ing to  nine  or  even  ten  in  the  evening  in  the  advanced 
heder.  In  the  latter,  in  addition,  a  part  or  the  whole 
of  Thursday  night  was  devoted  to  a  review  of  the 
ground  covered  during  the  week.  There  were  neither 
examinations  nor  graduations  nor  prizes,  such  stimuli 
being  unnecessary,  because  of  the  universal  reverence 
for  Jewish  knowledge  and  its  representatives. 

The  heder,  in  which  the  boy  remained  till  about  his 
fifteenth  year,1  was  supplemented  by  two  higher 
institutions  of  learning.  First  was  the  beth  hamid- 
rash ("House  of  Interpretation,  or  Study"),  a  curious 
institution  which  probably  has  no  parallel  in  the  life 
of  any  other  nation.  It  was  a  building,  such  as  was 
found  even  in  the  smallest  Jewish  community,  which 
served  not  only  as  a  house  of  prayer,  but  also  as  a 
sort  of  public  library  in  which  the  Jewish  residents 
spent  daily  a  few  hours  of  study  and  pious  meditation 

1  The  age  of  attendance  at  the  various  Jewish  schools 
differed  somewhat  in  the  different  parts  of  Russia.  The  differ- 
ence in  this  as  well  as  in  other  points  was  greatest  between 
Lithuania  and  Poland. 


JEWISH  EDUCATION  IN  AMERICA  293 

and  which  was  at  the  same  time  a  place  of  recreation, 
such  as  recreation  was  in  Russian  Jewish  life.  Above 
all,  it  was  a  place  in  which  the  Russian  Jewish  youths, 
without  any  guidance  and  left  completely  to  them- 
selves, continued,  in  literal  fulfillment  of  the  Biblical 
injunction  (Joshua  i,  8),  to  meditate  in  the  Law  day 
and  night,  for  they  often  spent  there  their  scanty 
hours  of  night  rest. 

The  other  alternate  institution  of  higher  learning 
was  the  yeshibah  or  Talmudic  academy.  This  type  of 
institution,  which  was  particularly  prevalent  in  Lithu- 
ania, was  generally  founded  by  some  famous  rabbinical 
authority  and  was  maintained,  as  were  also  its  students 
who  were  counted  by  the  hundreds  and  even  by 
the  thousands,  by  the  generous  donations  of  the 
whole  community.  There  the  Jewish  youths,  under 
some  sort  of  systematic  guidance,  which,  however, 
made  full  allowance  for  Russian  Jewish  individualism, 
explored  no  less  assiduously  the  vast  domains  of 
Jewish  lore. 

Neither  in  the  beth  hamidrash  nor  in  the  yeshibah 
was  there  a  definite  system  of  promotion  or  gradua- 
tion. Those  who  were  particularly  successful  in  their 
advanced  studies  received  from  some  celebrated 
authority  the  rabbinical  diploma,  the  most  coveted 
distinction  in  Russian  Jewish  life,  which,  however, 
was  by  no  means  always  put  to  practical  use.  Those 
who  were  less  successful  were  satisfied  to  be  educated 
laymen.  From  his  status  as  a  student,  the  Russian 
Jewish  youth  passed  directly  into  the  estate  of  matri- 
mony, at  the  age  of  seventeen  or  eighteen,  and,  being 


294  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

without  the  slightest  knowledge  of  life  or  business, 
went  to  swell  the  mass  of  struggling  humanity. 

One  more  institution  which  in  Russian  Jewish  life 
was  least  important,  but  when  transferred  to  American 
soil  became  of  unexpected  significance,  must  be 
mentioned  in  this  connection.  The  heder,  as  was 
pointed  out  above,  was  a  private  school,  and  the 
teacher  who  kept  it  depended  on  his  tuition  fee  for  a 
livelihood.  For,  poor  as  the  Russian  Jews  were, 
they  seldom  considered  themselves  poor  enough  to 
forego  the  privilege  of  paying  for  the  religious  in- 
struction of  their  children.  "Though  you  have  to 
secure  the  means  by  begging,  be  sure  to  provide 
for  the  instruction  of  your  children  in  the  Torah,"  is 
a  dying  father's  admonition  to  his  children.1  But 
for  those  children  who  were  fatherless,  or  whose 
parents  could  under  no  circumstances  afford  the 
tuition  fee,  every  community  maintained  a  public 
school  called  Talmud  Torah  ("Study  of  the  Law")  in 
which  the  elements  of  Judaism  were  imparted.  In 
spite  of  the  fact,  or  perhaps  owing  to  the  fact,  that 
these  schools  were  under  the  supervision  of  the 
Jewish  community,  they  were  the  least  successful 
and  least  esteemed  type  of  educational  institution. 
Only  the  poorest  of  the  poor  and  those  that  formed 
the  very  dregs  of  Russian  Jewish  society  availed 
themselves  of  this  educational  agency. 

The  educational  institutions,  as  outlined  above, 
suffered  no  doubt  from  many  serious,  nay  fundamental 
defects,  and  they  have  often  been  subjected,  particu- 

1  Compare  L.  Ginzberg,  Jewish  Primary  School,  p.  14. 


JEWISH  EDUCATION  IN  AMERICA  295 

larly  by  those  who  passed  over  to  secular  education, 
to  violent  and  even  passionate  criticism.  Yet,  on 
cool  reflection,  one  must  admit  that  they  were 
thoroughly  successful,  for  they  fulfilled  the  purpose 
for  which  they  were  created,  which  was  to  perpetuate 
the  peculiar  ideals  of  the  Russian  Jewish  community. 
And  much  as  we  may  feel  inclined  and,  indeed,  are 
forced  to  condemn  them  when  applying  modern 
standards,  we  must  not  overlook  the  great  fact  that, 
largely  through  their  instrumentality,  one  of  the  most 
unfortunate  sections  of  humanity,  ground  by  in- 
describable poverty  and  crushed  by  the  heavy  hand 
of  an  unfriendly  Government,  has  become  and  still 
remains  one  of  the  most  intellectually  alert  and  one 
of  the  most  anxious,  nay  greedy,  for  the  light  of 
knowledge  and  intellectual  advancement. 

No  particular  penetration  or  study  is  necessary 
to  realize  the  terrible  chaos  in  which  the  Russian 
Jewish  immigrants  found  themselves  when,  on  touching 
these  hospitable  shores,  they  were  confronted  by  the 
completely  different,  nay  diametrically  opposite  con- 
ditions of  American  life.  The  whole  elaborate  struc- 
ture of  Russian  Jewish  life  seemed  to  tumble  down 
like  a  card  house  on  the  first  touch  with  American 
reality.  Everything  in  the  new  environment,  the 
radically  different  standards  and  ideals  of  a  highly 
industrialized  community,  the  political  freedom,  the 
utterly  different  attitude  of  the  neighboring  popula- 
tion, the  demands  of  general  education  which  charac- 
teristically enough  the  Russian  Jew  immediately 
accepted  as  a  matter  of  course,  although  in  his  native 
land  he  had  shunned  them,  and  at  the  top,  and  per- 


296  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

haps  at  the  bottom  of  it  all,  the  fierce  economic 
struggle  of  the  newcomers  with  the  infinitely  greater 
prospects  of  success  which  it  held  forth  for  them — 
all  these  circumstances  were  equally  bound  to  revo- 
lutionize their  time-honored  ideas  and  ideals.  America 
was  to  them,  in  the  literal  sense  of  the  word,  a  new 
world,  new  not  only  geographically,  but  also  eco- 
nomically, socially,  politically,  and  religiously,  new  in 
every  manifestation  of  life;  and  it  is  no  exaggeration 
to  say  that  in  no  other  class  of  immigrants,  not  even 
among  those  from  the  Far  East,  has  the  painful 
process  of  adaptation  assumed  such  tragic  complica- 
tions as  among  the  Russian  Jews.  For,  having  no 
land  or  Government  to  fall  back  upon,  they  come  to 
this  country  with  the  intention  to  stay,  and  with  the 
genuine  desire  to  become  part  and  parcel  of  this 
Republic.  No  wonder,  therefore,  that  many  of  the 
immigrants,  realizing  the  hopelessness  of  adapting 
Judaism  (the  Judaism  such  as  they  knew  it)  to  the 
new  environment,  threw  up  their  hands  in  despair 
and  left  the  growing  generation  to  their  fate.  The 
result  was  that  within  a  few  years  there  was  created 
a  gulf  between  parents  and  children  which  could  no 
more  be  bridged,  and  which  is  undoubtedly  the  source 
of  the  innumerable  tragedies  in  the  inner  life  of  the 
Russian  Jews  in  this  country. 

There  were  others,  however,  who,  with  heavy 
hearts  and  hoping  against  hope,  decided  to  make  a 
stand  for  what  they  rightly  considered  to  be  their 
most  sacred  duty  as  Jews.  But  not  knowing  how 
to  modify  their  old  traditional  standards  in  accord- 
ance  with    the    new   conditions,    they    proceeded    to 


JEWISH  EDUCATION  IN  AMERICA  297 

reproduce  the  religious  and  educational  institutions 
of  Russian  Jewish  life  exactly  in  the  same  form  which 
they  had  had  in  the  "old  country."  This  disastrous 
policy  was,  in  part,  encouraged  by  the  attempt  of 
the  earlier  Jewish  settlers,  the  so-called  German  Jews 
to  Americanize  the  newcomers.  Well-meant  and 
prompted  by  generous  motives  as  these  endeavors 
no  doubt  were,  they  probably  did  more  harm  than 
good.  For,  instead  of  trying  to  preserve  all  that  was 
valuable  in  the  mental  make-up  of  the  Russian  Jew 
— and  much  of  it  was  of  high  and  lasting  value,  even 
in  the  new  environment — and,  instead  of  adapting  it 
gently  and  cautiously  to  the  new  conditions,  these 
endeavors,  rudely  ignoring  the  peculiar  individuality 
of  the  Russian  Jew,  proceeded  to  hammer  it  by  force 
into  the  mould  of  American  life.  No  wonder  then 
that  they  sometimes  resulted  in  making  the  Russian 
Jew  reject  all  that  was  valuable  in  his  own  culture 
and  adopt  that  which  was  superficial  and  least  valu- 
able in  the  new  culture.  As  a  consequence,  the 
Russian  Jews  learned  to  look  askance  at  all  these 
attempts  at  Americanization,  much  as  they  favored 
Americanization  in  itself,  and  they  refused  to  accept 
even  those  modifications  of  Jewish  life  which  might 
have  proved  beneficial  for  the  preservation  of  Judaism 
in  this  country. 

Left  then  to  their  own  resources,  the  Russian 
Jewish  immigrants  endeavored  to  reproduce  the 
religious,  and  what  interests  us  here  particularly,  the 
educational  agencies  of  Russian  Jewish  life.  But, 
with  all  their  loyalty  to  their  traditions,  it  was  obvious 
that  a  complete  reproduction  was  impossible.     The 


298  PAST  AND  PRESENT 


downfall  of  the  central  pillar  that  had  supported  the 
structure  of  Russian  Jewish  life,  the  ideal  of  religious 
knowledge  or  scholarship,  involved  the  downfall  of 
all  those  institutions  which  had  served  it.  Hence  the 
beth  hamidrash  and  the  yeshibah  were  doomed  from 
the  beginning,  and,  though  attempts  at  reproducing 
them  have  been  made,  they  did  not  yield  any  tangible 
results.  Even  the  advanced  heder,  which  had  for  its 
purpose  the  difficult  study  of  the  Talmud,  had  no 
place  in  the  new  surroundings,  in  which  the  best  energy 
of  the  growing  generation  was  requisitioned  either  for 
general  education  or  for  the  economic  struggle.  'As  a 
result,  only  the  elementary  heder  and  the  Talmud 
Torah,  the  two  institutions  which  limited  themselves 
to  imparting  the  fundamentals  of  Judaism,  came  to 
the  forefront,  and  these  institutions  became  the  more 
important,  since,  on  account  of  the  economic  struggle 
and  other  causes,  the  Jewish  home  which  had  always 
been  the  power  house  of  the  Jewish  religion  lost  much 
of  its  influence  as  an  educational  factor  among  the 
Jewish  people. 

We  now  understand  the  reason  why  the  heder 
became,  and  indeed  has  remained,  a  favorite  institu- 
tion among  the  Russian  Jewish  immigrants.  Accord- 
ing to  recent  calculations,  there  are  about  1,000  heders 
in  this  country,  with  an  annual  budget  of  about 
$600,000;  half  of  them  are  found  in  New  York  City. 
Yet,  no  one,  not  even  among  the  most  optimistic  or 
most  orthodox,  doubts  that  the  heder  is  a  complete 
failure  in  America.  Its  inherent  defects,  which  in 
the  atmosphere  of  Russian  Jewish  life  were  already 


JEWISH   EDUCATION  IN  AMERICA  299 

noticeable  but  bearable,  are  a  terrible  anomaly  in 
the  new  environment.  The  long  hours  of  study,  which 
were  an  indispensable  condition  of  their  success  in 
Russia,  are  impossible  in  this  country  in  which  the 
public  school  claims  the  best  time  and  energy  of  the 
child.  The  unhygienic  and  even  repulsive  external 
condition  of  the  heder,  which  was  scarcely  felt  in 
Russia,  has  had  the  inevitable  result  to  make  the  in- 
struction imparted  in  it  repulsive  to  the  American 
child,  who  judges  it  by  the  standards  of  the  public 
school.  From  these  facts  alone,  not  to  speak  of 
other  numerous  causes,  it  is  obvious  and  is  indeed 
admitted  on  all  hands  that  the  heder  has  no  chance 
whatsoever  and  does  not  even  offer  the  possibility 
of  improvement. 

An  unexpected  development  was  in  store  for  the  last 
type  of  Russian  Jewish  educational  agencies — the 
Talmud  Torah.  This  institution  which  occupied  the 
lowest  rung  in  the  educational  ladder  is  gradually 
climbing  to  the  top.  The  success  of  the  Talmud 
Torah  is  mainly  due  to  the  fact  that  it  is  a  large 
school  and  as  such  is  better  fitted  to  cope  with  the 
large  numbers  in  the  congested  Jewish  centers,  and 
is  at  least  potentially  able  to  adopt  and  adapt  the 
methods  and  externalities  of  the  American  public 
school.  The  first  Talmud  Torah  in  New  York  City 
was  founded  in  the  early  eighties,  but  with  all  its 
potentialities  this  type  of  school  has  not  yet  fully 
worked  out.  The  Talmud  Torah  in  this  country  was 
originally  designed,  as  had  been  the  case  in  Russia,  to 
accommodate  the  poor  children  who  could  not  pay, 
and  it  has  not  yet  fully  emancipated  itself  from  this 


300  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

objectionable  character  as  a  charitable  institution. 
Demanding  a  large  budget,  which  can  only  be  ob- 
tained by  organized  effort,  these  institutions  are  far 
from  meeting  the  educational  situation,  not  to  speak 
of  the  numerous  internal  evils  to  which  reference  will 
be  made  later.  It  is  enough  to  point  out  the  dry 
fact  that  of  the  200,000  Jewish  school  children  at 
present  in  New  York  only  11,000  are  taught  in 
Talmud  Torahs.1 

After  what  was  said  of  the  position  of  woman  in 
Jewish  education  in  Russia  it  will  scarcely  be  necessary 
to  add  that  until  very  recently  practically  no  pro- 
vision was  made  for  the  religious  instruction  of  the 
girls,  although  it  is  conceded  by  all  that  in  this  country 
the  Jewish  woman  is  destined  to  play  an  important 
role  in  Jewish  religious  life. 

The  above  facts  clearly  show  that,  in  spite  of  all 
educational  endeavors,  which,  in  view  of  the  extra- 
ordinary difficulties  confronting  them,  rather  deserve 
our  praise  than  our  criticism,  the  problem  of  Jewish 
education,  which  has  been  enormously  complicated 
by  the  third  and  largest  Jewish  immigration  to  America, 
is  further  from  its  solution  than  it  had  ever  been  before. 
A  few  figures  will  illustrate  the  magnitude  of  the 
problem.  The  last  census  of  Jewish  institutions  was 
made  in  1908,  and  was  presented  in  the  "American 
Jewish  Year  Book"  for  that  year.  Analyzing  the 
data  bearing  on  Jewish  education,  Dr.  S.  Benderly,  of 
whom  more  will  be  said  hereafter,  arrived  at  the 
following  figures  which,  of  course,  will  have  to  be 
modified    according    to    the    steady    increase    in    the 

['For  the  latest  figures  compare  the  works   quoted   in  the 
footnote  on  the  next  page.l 


JEWISH  EDUCATION  IN  AMERICA  301 

numbers  of  the  Jewish  population.1  Counting  the 
Jewish  population  of  the  United  States  as  1,800,000, 
he  estimated  the  number  of  Jewish  school  children  in 
1908  at  360,000.  Of  these,  26,560  received  instruc- 
tion in  235  Sunday  schools  with  one  session  weekly; 
9,551  were  taught  in  92  congregational  schools  with 
two,  very  seldom  three,  sessions  weekly;  and  26,216 
attended  236  daily  schools  (Talmud  Torahs).  The 
number  of  boys  taught  in  heders  (for  which  no  data 
were  available),  including  those  who  received  piivate 
instruction  at  home,  was  computed  by  Dr.  Benderly 
to  be  roughly  40,000.  The  total  number  of  children 
then,  who  in  1908  received  Jewish  religious  instruction, 
amounted  altogether  to  about  100,000;  so  that  fully 
260,000,  among  them  probably  170,000  girls,  were 
left  without  any  religious  instruction  whatsoever. 
Taking  into  consideration  that  none  of  these  types 
of  schools  admittedly  came  up  to  the  educational 
standards,  even  as  modified  in  this  country,  the  terrible 
significance  of  these  figures  from  the  religious  point 
of  view  becomes  apparent. 

But  not  only  from  the  rel'gious  point  of  view.  The 
lack  of  all  religious  instruction  and  consequently  of 
all    religious    idealism,    the    inevitable   weakening   of 

1  See  his  article  "Jewish  Education  in  America,"  in  the 
Jewish  Exponent  (Philadelphia),  January  17,  1908.  [The  latest 
figures  will  be  found  in  the  account  of  the  Jewish  educational 
agencies  in  New  York  City,  which  appeared  in  the  Jewish 
Communal  Register  of  New  York  City  for  1917-1918,  p.  349ff. 
A  very  elaborate  and  valuable  presentation  ol  the  entire 
problem  is  contained  in  Dr.  Alexander  M.  Dushkin's  book 
on  "Jewish  Education  in  New  York  City,"  published  by  the 
Bureau  of  Jewish  Education,  New  York,  1918.1 


302  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

moral  self-restraint  which  threatens  to  result  from  it, 
the  terrible  cleavage  between  parents  and  children, 
and  the  consequent  loss  of  parental  authority  which 
has  thus  been  brought  about,  the  materialization  of 
Jewish  life,  which  is  in  crying  contrast  to  all  Jewish 
traditions  and  is  particularly  dangerous  in  an  environ- 
ment with  a  highly  developed  industrial  life,  all  these 
facts,  added  to  the  natural  solicitude  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  Judaism,  could  not  fail  to  arrest  the  attention 
of  all  those  who  were  seriously  interested  in  the  welfare 
of  the  Jewish  community  in  America. 

Numerous  symptoms  heralded  this  awakening  of 
American  Jews  to  one  of  the  prime  necessities  of  Jewish 
life.  For  the  first  time,  in  several  large  cities  system- 
atic endeavors  were  made  to  collect  educational 
statistics  as  the  first  step  to  cope  with  the  problem. 
A  number  of  new  Talmud  Torahs  were  established. 
At  the  graduation  exercises  of  the  Jewish  Theological 
Seminary  in  1905,  its  president,  Professor  Solomon 
Schechter,  emphasized  the  fact  that,  while  several 
higher  institutions  of  learning  had  been  founded  to 
provide  education  for  the  few  (for  one  out  of  one 
thousand) ,  no  adequate  provision  was  made  for  the  nine 
hundred  and  ninety-nine  remaining;  and  the  same  fact 
was  dwelt  upon  on  the  same  occasion  by  Dr.  Cyrus 
Adler.  Shortly  afterwards,  through  the  munificence 
of  Mr.  Jacob  H.  Schiff,  the  Teachers'  Institute  of  the 
Jewish  Theological  Seminary,  and  a  similar  institution, 
under  the  auspices  of  the  Hebrew  Union  College  in 
Cincinnati,  were  established.  In  New  York  City  the 
various  Talmud  Torahs,  among  which  there  had  been 
no  cooperation  whatsoever,  made  an  attempt,  though 


JEWISH  EDUCATION  IN  AMERICA  303 

it   remained   a   platonic   one,    to   organize   a   Central 
Board  of  Talmud  Torahs. 

It  goes  without  saying  that,  difficult  and  extensive 
as  was  the  problem  of  Jewish  education  throughout 
the  country,  it  was  nowhere  more  difficult  and  more 
extensive  than  in  New  York  City.  For  New  York 
City  contains  almost  one-half  of  American  Jewry  and 
forms  the  port  of  entry  where  the  immigrant  comes 
for  the  first  time  face  to  face  with  the  conditions  of  the 
new  environment.  The  Jewry  of  New  York,  indeed, 
presents,  on  account  of  its  vast  and  congested  popu- 
lation, unique  problems  of  religious  organization. 
The  religious  and  educational  chaos,  which,  as  was 
indicated  above,  was  the  inevitable  result  of  a 
chaotic  immigration,  was  greater  here  than  else- 
where. It  was  therefore,  natural  that  the  first 
attempt  to  cope  with  this  situation  should  be  made 
in  New  York.  In  1909  a  large  number  of  Jewish 
organizations  formed  the  Jewish  Community  (Ke- 
hillah)  of  New  York  City  for  the  purpose  of  religious 
organization,  under  the  chairmanship  of  Dr.  J.  L. 
Magnes.  It  is  a  significant  fact  that  one  of  the  very 
first  steps  of  the  new  organization  was  to  investigate 
the  status  of  religious  education  in  New  York  City. 
Already  at  the  first  convention  of  the  Community 
(February  26  and  27,  1910)  Professor  Mordecai  M. 
Kaplan,  the  then  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Edu- 
cation, presented  the  results  of  this  investigation, 
which  made  a  deep  impression.  He  showed  that,  out 
of  a  computed  Jewish  school  population  of  170,000 
(in  1909),  only  41,404  were  taught  in  some  kind  of 
Jewish    educational    institution — of    these    almost    a 


304  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

third  (13,532)  went  to  heders — while,  even  if  allow- 
ance be  made  for  those  taught  privately  at  home, 
two-thirds  were  left  without  a  knowledge  of  Judaism 
and  its  religious  institutions.  Professor  Kaplan 
summed  up  his  report  in  the  following  discouraging 
sentences : 

1.  The   demand   for   Jewish   education   is   comparatively 
small.1     2.  Small  as  the  demand  is,  the  means  and  equip- 
ment which  we  possess  at  present  are  far  too  inadequate 
to  meet  it.     3.  Wherever  that  demand  is  met,  there  is  a 
lack  of  system  or  of  content. 
Fortunately  this  educational  inquiry  aroused  more 
than  fruitless  apprehensions.     At  the  same  conven- 
tion of  the  Jewish  Community  the  chairman,  Dr.  J.  L. 
Magnes,  was  able  to  announce  that  Mr.   Jacob   H. 
SehifT  had  donated  the  sum  of  $50,000  to  be  distributed 
over   five   years   for   the   purpose   of   improving   and 
promoting    Jewish    religious    primary    education    in 
New    York    City;    and    soon    afterwards    a    sum    of 
S25,000  was  added  by  the  New  York  Foundation2  for 
the  same  purpose. 

Having  obtained  these  gifts,  Dr.  Magnes  addressed 
himself  to  Dr.  S.  Benderly,  a  Jewish  pedagogue  in 
Baltimore,  for  an  expression  of  opinion  as  to  the  best 
use  of  these  funds. 

The  inquiry  of  Dr.  Magnes  was  answered  by  Dr. 
Benderly  in  a  statement  which  subsequently  appeared 
as  Bulletin  No.  1  of  the  Jewish  Community  of  New 

1  This  is  no  doubt  explained  by  the  fact  that  the  Jewish 
population  had  no  confidence  in  the  hitherto  established  edu- 
cational institutions. 

2  The  New  York  Foundation  is  made  up  of  a  legacy  of  the 
late  Mr.  Heinsheimer  for  educational  and  social  purposes. 


JEWISH  EDUCATION  IN  AMERICA  305 


York  City.  Since  the  ideas  contained  in  this  state- 
ment became  afterwards  the  guiding  principles  of  the 
Jewish  Bureau  of  Education,  the  following  sentences 
may  be  quoted  as  illustrating  the  attitude  of  this 
organization  toward  the  problem  from  the  very  be- 
ginning: 

Never  before  in  Jewish  history  has  so  large  a  Jewish  com- 
munity as  we  form  in  this  country  had  both  the  opportunity 
and  the  responsibility  of  proving  that  the  essentials  of 
Judaism,  so  far  from  being  in  contradiction  to  the  cardinal 
elements  of  modern  civilization,  are  complementary  to  them, 
the  two  sides  being  mutually  indispensable  to  each  other. 
Constituting  an  integral  part  of  the  Republic,  we  are  under 
obligation  to  demonstrate  that  the  principles  for  which 
Israel  fought  and  bled  over  two  thousand  years  are  perfectly 
compatible  with  and  essential  to  the  fundamental  principles 
upon  which  the  American  nation  is  building  a  wonderful 
structure  of  human  liberty  and  happiness.  Our  obligation 
is  twofold.  On  the  one  hand,  we  must  Americanize,  in 
the  higher  sense,  every  Jew  in  this  country,  infusing  into 
him  the  spirit  of  self-reliance,  fair  play,  and  social  co-opera- 
tion; and,  on  the  other  hand,  we  must  build  up  the 
structure  of  Jewish  life,  so  as  not  only  to  enable  ourselves 
to  hold  our  own,  Jewishly  speaking,  but  also  to  become  an 
indispensable  element  in  the  progress  of  the  country. 

As  the  great  public  school  system  is  the  rock  bottom  upon 
which  this  country  is  rearing  its  institutions,  so  we  Jews 
must  evolve  here  a  system  of  Jewish  education  that  shall  be 
complementary  to  and  harmonious  with  the  public  system. 

Speaking  of  the  practical  difficulties  of  the  problem 
Dr.  Benderly  continues: 

First  looms  up  what  I  would  call  the  hygienic  phase  of 
Jewish  religious  education.  We  have  to  deal  with  children 
that  spend  practically  the  entire  day  in  the  public  schools, 
and  come  to  the  Hebrew  school  fatigued  both  in  body  and 
mind.    This  is  the  fact  that  has  given  birth  to  the  Jewish  Sun- 


306  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

day  school,  and  now  the  more  serious  students  and  well-wish- 
ers of  the  Sunday  school  system  realize  that,  because  of  the 
limited  time  at  its  disposal,  it  has  no  future.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  Talmud  torahs  and  chadarim  (heders)  confine 
weary  children  for  two  hours  or  more  daily,  which  is  un- 
doubtedly detrimental  to  the  health  of  the  children;  and  the 
Jews  living  in  congested  areas,  in  New  york  in  particular, 
can  ill  afford  to  invite  a  curtailing  of  vitality.  The  question 
at  once  arises:  Is  it  possible  to  work  out  a  course  of  re- 
ligious instruction  that  shall  enable  us  to  reduce  the  number 
of  hours  needed  for  Hebrew  instruction  by  half,  and  that 
shall  at  the  same  time  be  exhilarating  enough  to  evoke  a 
response  from  tired  children? 

Discussing  the  financial  phase  of  the  problem, 
Dr.  Benderly  pointed  out1  that  to  provide  school 
buildings  for  the  Jewish  school  population  of  New 
York  would  demand  an  investment  of  $16,000  000, 
an  annual  expenditure  of  $3,000,000  for  teaching,  an 
army  of  3,000  teachers,  not  to  speak  of  the  annual 
increase  of  8,000  children,  who  would  demand  an 
additional  annual  investment  in  school  buildings 
of  $640,000,  an  additional  annual  outlay  of  $120,000 
for  teaching,  and  an  additional  annual  supply  of  200 
teachers.  The  mere  magnitude  of  this  phase  of  the 
educational  problem  makes  it  clear  that  our  hope 
lies  with  the  people  themselves,  and  that  the  parents 
must  support  the  schools.  Dr.  Benderly,  therefore, 
suggested  that  the  fund  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the 
Jewish  Community  should  not  be  spent  in  propping 

t1  The  figures  in  the  following  are  slightly  amended  in  ac- 
cordance with  later  computations.  See  the  writer's  report  on 
the  Bureau  of  Education  submitted  to  the  third  annual  conven- 
tion of  the  Jewish  Community  of  New  York  City  (New  York, 
1912),  p.  24.] 


JEWISH  EDUCATION   IN  AMERICA  307 

up  certain  existing  institutions,  but  should  be  used  as 
a  lever  for  the  study  and  improvement  of  primary 
Jewish  education  in  New  York  City  as  a  whole. 
He  proposed  the  establishment  of  a  bureau  for  Jewish 
education  having  the  following  objects: 

1.  To  study  the  Jewish  educational  forces  in  New  York 
City  with  a  view  to  co-operation  and  the  elimination  of 
waste  and  overlapping. 

2.  To  get  in  touch  with  the  best  teachers  and  workers 
and  to  organize  them  for  their  material  and  spiritual  ad- 
vancement. 

3.  To  carry  on  a  propaganda  in  order  to  acquaint  the 
Jews  of  New  York  with  the  problem  of  Jewish  education 
and  with  the  means  of  solving  it. 

4.  To  operate  one  or  two  model  schools  for  elementary 
pupils  for  the  purpose  of  working  out  in  practice  the  various 
phases  of  primary  Jewish  education. 

The  plan  formulated  by  Dr.  Benderly  was  submitted, 
through  Dr.  Magnes,  to  the  executive  committee  of 
the  Jewish  Community  of  New  York  City,  which 
adopted  it  and  elected  a  board  of  five  trustees  to 
take  charge  of  the  new  organization  for  a  period  of 
five  years.  The  trustees,  in  turn,  appointed  Dr. 
Benderly  director.  The  bureau  was  formally  opened 
on  October  1,  1910.1 


['The  rest  of  the  article  describing  the  activities  of  the 
Bureau  has  been  omitted.  A  brief  description  of  these  activities, 
which  is  more  up  to  date,  will  be  found  in  the  Jewish  Communal 
Register  of  New  York  City  for  1917-1918,  p.  1143ff  and  in  the 
above-quoted  book  of  Dr.  Dushkin,  p.  lOOff.] 


XVII 

THE   FUNCTION   OF  JEWISH   LEARNING   IN 
AMERICA* 

THE  nature  of  the  subject  no  less  than  the  place 
and  the  occasion  imperatively  demand  that, 
attempting  to  discuss  a  question  which  reaches 
deeply  into  the  problems  of  the  Jewish  present,  I 
should  endeavor  to  look  at  it  in  the  broad  per- 
spective of  Jewish  history,  in  which  a  thousand  years 
are  but  as  yesterday  when  it  is  past.  I  shall  therefore 
request  you  to  detach  yourselves  for  a  moment  from 
your  surroundings  and  to  accompany  me  in  your 
imagination  to  an  earlier  period  of  the  Jewish  past, 
which  is  removed  from  us  by  such  a  millennial 
"yesterday,"  and  yet  in  many  essential  aspects  antici- 
pates the  situation  in  which  the  Jews  of  America  find 
themselves  today.  I  refer  to  the  period  marked  by  the 
rise  of  Jewish  learning  in  Spain. 

For  many  hundreds  of  years  Judaism  had  been 
centered  in  Babylonia;  there  the  foundations  were 
laid  upon  which  the  structure  of  post-biblical  Judaism 
has  rested  until  this  day.  Through  the  medium  of 
the  Exilarchate  and,  above  all,  through  its  colleges 
and  academies,  Babylonian  Jewry  guided  and  con- 
trolled the  spiritual  life  of  the  Jews  all  over  the  world. 

*Address  delivered  at  the  Dropsie  College  of  Hebrew  and 
Cognate  Learning  in  Philadelphia,  on  Founder's  Day,  March  9, 
1914.  Published  in  the  Student's  Annual  of  the  Jewish  Theologi- 
cal Seminary  of  America,  New  York,  1914,  p.  124ff. 


310  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

Although  situated  in  the  midst  of  the  powerful 
Persian  Empire  with  a  highly  developed  religion  and 
culture,  the  Jews  of  Babylonia  managed  to  live  a  life 
of  their  own,  easily  adapting  themselves  to  the  de- 
mands of  the  environment  which  were  merely  of  an 
external  nature.  But  in  the  middle  of  the  seventh 
century  a  new  factor  began  to  disturb  the  serenity  of 
Babylonian  Jewish  life.  The  victorious  Arabs  changed 
not  only  the  political  character  but  also  the  religious 
and  cultural  complexion  of  the  Babylonian  lands. 
The  young  generation  among  the  Jews  began  to 
hearken  to  the  new  ideas  which  followed  in  the  wake 
of  the  Mohammedan  arms,  and  a  deep  religious  unrest, 
the  unavoidable  result  of  a  mixture  of  cultures,  took 
hold  of  the  thoughtful  elements  of  the  Jewish  com- 
munity. It  seemed,  to  quote  the  words  of  an  illus- 
trious thinker  of  that  period,1  "as  if  men  had  sunk 
in  seas  of  doubt  and  were  covered  with  the  waters  of 
error.  Yet  there  was  no  diver  to  bring  them  forth 
from  the  depth  and  no  swimmer  to  seize  them  and 
rescue  them  from  drowning."  The  official  leaders  of 
the  community  looked  with  indifference  and  disdain 
upon  the  spread  of  what  to  them  seemed  but  new- 
fangled and  short-lived  ideas.  But  when  the  novel 
influences  began  to  crystallize  themselves  in  sectarian- 
ism, and  religious  factions  sprang  up  which  did  not 
shrink  from  denying  and  opposing  their  authority, 
the  powers  that  be  at  last  bestirred  themselves. 
They  realized  the  necessity  of  making  concessions  to 
the  new  spirit  of  the  age.  and  when  the  presidency  of 
the   leading   academy   at    the    time,    the   celebrated 

1  Saadia  Gaon,  in  the  introduction  to  his  Emunoth  we-Deoth. 


JEWISH  LEARNING  IN  AMERICA  311 

Yeshibah  at  Sura,  became  vacant,  they  decided  to 
call  to  this  post,  which  implied  the  religious  leadership 
of  Babylonian  Jewry,  a  man  who  would  not  only 
possess  an  intimate  knowledge  of  the  traditional  source 
of  Judaism,  but  would  also  exhibit  a  thorough  under- 
standing of  what  at  that  time  was  looked  upon  as 
modern  culture.  Such  a  man,  however,  could  no 
more  be  found  within  the  ranks  of  retrograde  Baby- 
lonian Jewry,  and  the  Babylonian  authorities  saw 
themselves  compelled  to  entrust  the  Gaonate  of 
Sura,  for  the  first  time  in  seven  hundred  years,  to  a 
foreigner,  Rabbi  Saadia  ben  Joseph,  of  Fayyum  in 
Egypt. 

But  the  remedy  was  applied  too  late.  For  in  the 
meantime  the  Eastern  Caliphate  had  entered  upon  a 
period  of  political  and  spiritual  decline.  Tolerance 
and  liberty  of  conscience  had  given  way  to  bigotry 
and  fanaticism,  and  with  it  the  external  condition 
of  the  Babylonian  Jews  had  changed  for  the  worse. 
Their  political  freedom  and,  as  a  consequence,  their 
economic  prosperity  was  greatly  curtailed.  They 
now  lacked  not  only  the  men  but  also  the  means  to 
keep  up  their  time-honored  position  in  the  Jewish 
world.  Strife,  the  inseparable  companion  of  retro- 
gression, only  helped  to  accelerate  the  process  of 
decline.  The  colleges  and  academies,  whence  light 
and  leading  had  for  centuries  gone  forth  to  the  whole 
of  Israel,  now  depended  for  their  subsistence  on  the 
generosity  of  the  Jews  outside  of  Babylonia,  and 
Babylonian  Jewish  supremacy  was  at  an  end. 

Scarcely,  however,  had  the  sun  of  Jewry  set  in  the 
East,  when   it  began   to  rise  in   the  West.     On   the 


312  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

Iberian  peninsula,  the  New  World  of  that  period,  the 
Western  Caliphate  was  rapidly  blossoming  into 
strength  and  beauty.  Originally  a  colony  of  the 
Caliphate  of  Bagdad,  it  finally  obtained  its  inde- 
pendence, and  with  the  vigor  and  courage  of  youth  it 
began  to  erect  a  magnificent  structure  of  citizenship, 
vouchsafing  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness 
to  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  land.  The  Jews,  who 
had  helped  the  Arabs  to  wrest  the  peninsula  from  the 
semi-savage  Goths,  took  from  the  very  beginning  an 
active  and  prominent  part  in  the  political,  economic 
and  cultural  development  of  the  country  under  the 
new  regime.  As  far  as  Judaism  is  concerned,  the 
Jews  of  Spain  were  at  first  dependent  for  their  spiritual 
guidance  upon  their  brethren  in  Babylonia.  Their 
religious  difficulties  were  solved  by  the  Geonim  of 
Sura  and  Pumbaditha  and  even  their  liturgy  had  to  be 
imported  from  distant  Babylonia. 

But  on  the  gray  horizon  of  this  spiritual  mediocrity 
there  rises  like  a  morning  star  the  luminous  figure  of 
Hasdai  Ibn  Shaprut,  a  man  with  universal  Jewish 
interests,  whose  sympathies  extend  to  the  far-off 
semi-Jewish  Khazars,  whose  liberality  embraces  the 
colleges  and  academies  of  Babylonia,  but  who  at  the 
same  time  realizes  the  necessity  of  an  independent 
Jewish  life  in  the  new  land.  He  supports  native 
Jewish  talent  in  the  person  of  Menahem  ben 
Saruk,  but  also  endeavors  to  attract  prominent 
Jewish  scholars  from  abroad,  such  as  Dunash  Ibn 
Labrat,  who  introduces  into  Spain  the  science  of 
Hebrew  philology,  and  Moses  ben  Hanokh,  who  es- 
tablishes a  center  of  Talmudic  learning  on  the  Iberian 


JEWISH  LEARNING  IN  AMERICA  313 


peninsula,  and  together  with  the  men  of  learning 
the  far-sighted  Hasdai  cautiously  transfers  to  the 
new  land  the  libraries  of  the  "old  country."  The 
native  Jewish  scholars  of  Spain,  who,  at  first,  are 
looked  down  upon  by  their  colleagues  from  the 
earlier  seats  of  learning,  gradually  equal,  then  rival, 
and  finally  excel  their  former  masters.  Like  a  focus 
which  first  gathers  the  rays  of  the  sun  and  then  sends 
them  forth  into  space,  Spanish  Jewry  passes  through 
a  period  of  spiritual  dependence  to  one  of  spiritual 
supremacy.  Jewish  culture  in  Spain  becomes  the 
universal  possession  of  the  whole  house  of  Israel  and 
for  hundreds  of  years  illumines  with  its  beauteous 
rays  the  darkness  and  dinginess  of  the  Jewish  Middle 
Ages. 

What  has  just  been  said  of  Judaism  in  Spain  of  a 
thousand  years  ago  applies,  with  scarcely  more  than 
a  change  of  names,  to  Jewish  America  of  today.  But 
American  Jewry  resembles  in  one  more  essential 
aspect  its  predecessor  on  the  Iberian  peninsula. 
For  just  as  the  Spanish  period  of  Jewish  history, 
which  is  characterized  by  the  association  of  the  Jews 
with  the  environment,  succeeded  the  Babylonian 
period,  during  which  the  Jews  kept  themselves  aloof 
from  their  neighbors,  so  does  American  Judaism  of 
today,  confronted  with  the  imperative  task  of  be- 
coming part  and  parcel  of  general  American  life, 
follow  in  the  wake  of  the  long  period  of  isolation  in 
Poland  and  Russia.  And  however  deeply  we  may- 
love  and  admire  the  transcendent  beauty  and  in- 
comparable intensity  of  Jewish  life  and  learning  in 
the  Russian  ghetto,  the  force  of  logic  and  of  history 


314  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

compels  us  to  connect  ourselves,  over  the  chasm  of 
centuries,  with  our  predecessors  in  Spain,  who  were 
faced  by  conditions  and  problems  similar  to  those 
with  which  we  in  this  country  have  to  battle  today. 
It  is,  therefore,  natural  to  expect  that  a  study  of  the 
Spanish  period  of  Jewish  history  will  yield  to  us 
many  a  valuable  lesson  which,  with  the  help  of  a  kind 
Providence,  we  may  turn  to  good  account  in  the  new 
Jewish  center  now  rising  before  our  eyes  in  this  land. 
The  first  lesson  which  impresses  itself  upon  our 
mind  as  a  result  of  our  study  is  the  unique  significance 
of  Jewish  learning  in  the  life  of  the  Jewish  people. 
Great  and  glorious  as  were  the  external  successes  of 
the  Jews  in  Spain, — what  alone  has  survived  the 
ravages  of  time  and  the  vicissitudes  of  the  Golus  and 
what  alone  has  been  woven  inextricably  into  the 
texture  of  the  Jewish  consciousness  are  not  their 
political,  economic  or  charitable  achievements,  but 
the  Jewish  learning  which  they  acquired  and  developed. 
Hasdai  was  the  most  influential  diplomat  at  the  most 
influential  court  of  the  age,  but  what  entitles  him 
to  the  gratitude  of  posterity  is  not  his  political  genius 
or  the  diplomatic  skill  with  which  he  brought  the 
insolent  Sancho  Ramirez  and  his  crafty  grandmother, 
Queen  Toda,  to  the  feet  of  Abdarrahman  the  Third, 
but  his  patronage  of  Jewish  culture  in  Spain.  What 
makes  Samuel  Hanagid  a  prominent  figure  in  the 
annals  of  Judaism  are  not  the  services  he  rendered  as 
prime  minister  to  the  obscure  Berber  princes,  Habus 
and  Badis,  but  his  Introduction  into  the  Talmud  and 
the  prowess  with  which  he  handled  the  Hebrew  lyre. 
And  what  gives  Moses  Maimonides  his  commanding 


JEWISH  LEARNING  IN  AMERICA  315 

position  as  the  Moses  of  post-biblical  Judaism  is 
not  the  medical  skill  with  which  he  treated  the  vizier 
al-Fadil  or  the  fair  inmates  of  Saladin's  harem,  but  the 
"Strong  Hand"  with  which  he  acted  as  the  "Guide 
of  the  Perplexed"  to  the  eternal  fountains  of  Jewish 
truth.  And  speaking  of  our  own  times,  however 
intensely  we  may  feel  mortified  by  the  sufferings  of 
our  brethern  in  Russia,  and  however  deeply  we  may 
feel  gratified  by  the  successes  of  our  fellow-Jews  in 
Germany,  long  after  the  victims  of  the  Czar's  tyranny 
and  the  objects  of  the  Kaiser's  favor  will  have  become 
dim  recollections  of  the  past,  Russian-Jewish  Lam- 
danuth  and  the  German  "Science  of  Judaism"  will 
stand  forth  as  the  great  contributions  of  Russian  and 
German  Jews  to  the  treasury  of  Judaism.  And 
whatever  social,  political  and  economic  accomplish- 
ments a  kind  Providence  may  have  in  store  for  us  in 
this  free  land,  the  standards  by  which  a  later  age  will 
judge  the  American  phase  of  Jewish  history  will  be 
neither  our  wealth  nor  our  influence  nor  even  our 
philanthropy,  but  that  alone  which  will  remain  the 
inalienable  possession  of  the  entire  House  of  Israel, 
our  additions  to  the  spiritual  armory  of  the  People  of 
the  Book. 

And  just  as  the  Spanish  period  impresses  upon  us 
the  unrivalled  significance  of  Jewish  learning  in  the 
development  of  our  people,  so  does  it  illustrate  to  us 
the  tendency  which  Jewish  learning  is  to  pursue  in 
our  own  days  if  it  is  to  obtain  and  to  retain  the  role 
of  a  leading  factor  in  Jewish  life.  The  deeper  we 
penetrate  into  the  conditions  of  that  period,  the 
clearer  are  we  led  to  recognize  the  remarkably  har- 


316  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

monious  complexion  of  Jewish  culture  in  Spain: 
its  close  and  intimate  association  with  the  general 
culture  of  the-age,  on  the  one  hand,  and,  on  the  other, 
its  ability  to  preserve  and  to  develop  its  distinct 
Jewish  character  and  to  sink  deeply  into  the  hearts 
and  the  minds  of  the  Jewish  people.  Granted  that 
Hebrew  philology  followed  in  the  wake  of  the  re- 
markable philological  achievements  of  the  Arabs,  and 
that  the  technical  terms  of  Hebrew  grammar  were 
fashioned  after  non-Jewish  models, — the  hokmath  ha- 
dikdnk,  the  science  of  Hebrew  grammar,  has  yet 
become  a  characteristic  feature  of  Jewish  culture  in 
the  lands  of  the  Golus.  Granted  that  the  glorious 
Hebrew  poetry  of  that  period,  as  was  already  pointed 
out  by  Harizi,  owes  its  stimulus  and  development  to 
the  poetry  of  the  Arabs,  and  that  even  the  Zionides 
of  Judah  Halevi  imitate  the  construction  of  an 
Arabic  Kasida,  yet  the  poems  of  Halevi  or  Ibn 
Gebirol  are  recited  with  fervor  in  the  synagogues  of 
the  Diaspora.  Granted  that  the  Jewish  philosophy 
of  that  period  is  influenced  and  determined  by  the 
thought  of  the  Muslim  environment,  and  that  the 
very  title  of  Bahya's  celebrated  work  is  a  mere 
stock  phrase  of  the  Mohammedan  Mu'tazilites,  the 
Hoboth  ha-Lebaboth  is  nevertheless  the  classic  work  of 
Jewish  devotion,  and  Yigdal,  which  is  in  part  an  epi- 
tome of  Aristotelian  metaphysics,  is  an  integral 
portion  of  the  orthodox  Jewish  liturgy.  Granted 
even  that  the  great  religious  code  of  Maimonides  is 
arranged  in  a  manner  reminiscent  of  the  Mohammedan 
fukaha,  and  that  its  wonderful  Hebrew  diction  is  per- 
meated with  Arabisms,  the  Mishne  Torah  has  never- 


JEWISH  LEARNING  IN  AMERICA  317 

theless  become  a  "Second  Torah"  to  post-Talmudic 
Judaism,  and  to  explain  a  "difficult  Rambam1'  is 
still  an  object  of  glory  and  ambition  in  the  Russian- 
Jewish  Yeshibahs.  Jewish  learning  in  Spain  may 
have  been  molded  by  the  non-Jewish  environment, 
but,  in  spite  of  it,  or,  rather,  because  of  it,  it  became 
the  inseparable  heritage  of  Spanish  Jewry  and 
through  it  of  the  Jewry  of  the  world. 

What  is  true  of  the  Spanish  Jews  of  a  thousand 
years  ago,  is  equally  true  of  the  American  Jews  of 
today.  We,  too,  live  in  a  powerful  environment 
which  we  cannot,  and  indeed,  dare  not  disregard. 
The  general  culture  of  the  land  stands  before  us  like 
an  iron  wall,  and  we  shall  be  cracked  like  a  nutshell 
if  we  attempt  to  run  our  heads  against  it.  The  only 
solution  left  to  us  is  that  of  adaptation,  but  an  adapta- 
tion which  shall  sacrifice  nothing  that  is  essential  to 
Judaism,  which  shall  not  impoverish  Judaism  but  en- 
rich it,  which,  as  was  the  case  with  Jewish  culture  in 
Spain,  shall  take  fully  into  account  what  the  environ- 
ment demands  of  us,  and  shall  yet  preserve  and  foster 
our  Jewish  distinctiveness  and  originality.  Let  the 
cynics  in  our  midst  sneer  to  their  heart's  content  at 
what  they  choose  to  brand  as  minhag  America, 
Jewish  learning  in  this  country,  like  that  of  our 
ancestors  in  Spain,  will  rise  and  develop  in  intimate 
association  with  the  culture  of  our  neighbors.  It  will 
be  American  in  language,  in  scope,  in  method,  and 
yet  be  distinctively  Jewish  in  essence,  the  proud 
possession  of  American  Israel  and  through  it  in  God's 
own  time  the  cherished  property  of  Universal  Israel. 

Finally,  what  gives  Jewish  learning  in  Spain  its 
peculiar  character  and  flavor  is,  as  has  already  been 


318  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

implied  in  the  foregoing,  its  connection  with  practical 
life.  Ardent  as  was  the  longing  of  the  period  for  the 
higher  and  finer  things  of  existence,  its  culture,  with 
all  its  passionate  quest  for  sweetness  and  light,  is 
strongly  colored  by  the  healthy  hue  of  reality.  Jewish 
learning  in  Spain  is  not  weltfremd,  as  it  was  in  other 
lands  and  in  other  ages;  on  the  contrary,  it  is  anxious 
not  only  to  meet  but  also  to  anticipate  the  legitimate 
demands  of  practical  life.  It  is  not  accidental  that 
the  emphasis  of  Jewish  learning  in  Spain  is  found  just 
in  those  branches  of  knowledge  which  are  the  distin- 
guishing characteristics  of  the  general  culture  of  the 
age.  At  this  distance  of  time  we  may  feel  inclined  to 
smile  at  the  passionate  heat  with  which  men  of  affairs 
no  less  then  men  of  letters  were  prone  to  discuss  insig- 
nificant minutiae  of  Hebrew  philology  or  hair-splitting 
subtleties  of  Jewish  philosophy.  But  a  deeper  study 
of  the  period  convinces  us  that  what  seems  unim- 
portant to  us  was  an  important  and  integral  part 
of  the  general  culture  of  the  time,  and  the  failure  to 
satisfy  the  peculiar  philological  and  philosophical 
cravings  of  the  age  within  Judaism  would  have  com- 
pelled the  educated  Jews  to  seek  their  satisfaction 
outside  of  Judaism.  When  Saadia  Gaon  engages  in 
the  discussion  of  what  to  us  might  seem  a  superfluous 
question  as  to  whether  God  is  able  to  change  yester- 
day into  today,  it  is  not  the  fruitless  search  of  a  theory- 
monger,  but  the  legitimate  desire  of  a  Jewish  leader 
to  solve  in  a  Jewish  way  a  problem  that  agitated 
at  the  time  the  minds  of  both  Jews  and  non-Jews. 
And  Maimonides,  this  giant  of  intellectualism,  who 
regards   the  study  of  metaphysics  as    the    ultimate 


JEWISH  LEARNING  IN  AMERICA  319 

and  exclusive  goal  of  all  human  existence,  constructs 
the  enormous  edifice  of  his  literary  activity  with  the 
clearly  expressed  view  to  the  practical  demands  of 
the  time. 

What  Jewish  learning  was  to  the  Jews  of  Spain,  it 
must  also  be  to  the  Jews  of  this  country.  We,  too, 
are  confronted  by  great  and  complicated  problems 
of  Jewish  life,  problems  not  merely  of  Jewry,  but  of 
Judaism.  We  live  in  a  period  of  great  physical  and 
spiritual  upheavals  in  the  life  of  our  people.  "In 
our  own  time — to  repeat  the  words  of  Maimonides  in 
the  introduction  to  his  Code — excessive  persecutions 
overpower  us.  The  pressure  of  the  time  makes 
itself  felt  everywhere  and,  as  a  result,  the  widsom  of 
our  wise  is  vanishing  and  the  understanding  of  our 
men  of  understanding  is  hiding  itself."1  The  tremen- 
dous process  of  Jewish  immigration  brings  us  con- 
stantly face  to  face  with  the  necessity  of  evolving 
harmony  out  of  the  terrible  chaos  resulting  from  it. 
There  is  spiritual  unrest  outside  of  Judaism;  there  is 
greater  spiritual  unrest  within  Judaism.  The  per- 
plexed of  our  own  age  are  more  numerous  and  more 
difficult  to  deal  with  than  those  of  the  Spanish 
period.  In  a  crisis  like  this  Jewish  learning  cannot 
afford,  and  indeed  cannot  be  permitted,  to  stand  aside. 
It  must  be  called  upon  to  abandon  its  attitude  of 
neutrality,  to  descend  from  its  lofty  pedestal  of  pure 
theory  and  to  take  an  active  hand  in  the  solution  of 
the  problems  of  practical  life. 

Yes,  of  practical  life!  But  in  advocating  the 
practical   function  of  Jewish   learning,   I   should  not 

1   See   above   p.    176,   where   the   translation   is  differently 
worded . 


320  PAST  AND   PRESENT 

like  to  be  misunderstood.  If  I  may  for  a  moment 
speak  personally,  my  notions  of  scholarship  were  fash- 
ioned in  a  country  in  which  Wissenschaft  and  Leben 
are  looked  upon  as  opposites,  a  country  which  is 
proud  of  the  fact  that  Hegel  wrote  his  Phaenomenologie 
des  Geistes,  undisturbed  by  the  roar  of  cannons  on  the 
battlefield  of  Jena.  To  be  sure,  scholarship  to  be 
useful  to  life  must  be  detached  from  life.  For 
scholarship  is  the  point  of  Archimedes  which  is  to 
pull  life  from  its  axis  and  to  lift  it  to  higher  forms  of 
existence.  It  is  the  pioneer  which,  regardless  of  con- 
sequences, blazes  a  path  in  unknown  regions.  What 
today  creeps  as  a  truism  through  the  sluggish  brain  of 
the  Philistine,  flashed  but  yesterday  as  a  paradox 
through  the  creative  mind  of  the  scholar.  The 
student  who  from  the  window  of  his  closet  flirts  with 
the  mob  on  the  street  is  not  a  champion  of  scholarship 
but  a  traitor  to  scholarship,  for  he  reduces  scholarship, 
which  is  the  mistress  of  life,  to  a  handmaid  of  life. 
And  to  be  sure,  in  this  country,  with  its  unmistakable 
drift  towards  the  tangible  and  material  things  of  life, 
we  need  more  than  anywhere  else  the  corrective  and 
restraining  influence  of  an  idealistic  and  theoretic 
scholarship.  To  repeat  the  favorite  plea  of  Professor 
Schechter,  a  community  so  essentially  practical  as 
ours  stands  in  dire  need  of  a  few  men  who  have  the 
courage  to  be  unpractical.  A  certain  aloofness  in 
scholarship  is  not  only  permissible,  but  indispensable, 
if  scholarship  is  not  to  degenerate  into  fakirdom.  But 
with  all  this,  when  the  purely  scholarly  task  of  blazing 
new  paths  is  accomplished,  it  is  the  right,  nay,  it  is  the 
duty  of  the  scholar  to  throw  them  open  to  the  public. 


JEWISH  LEARNING  IN  AMERICA  321 

He  who  works  in  a  laboratory  and  rushes  into  the 
headlines  of  the  newspapers  to  tell  the  people  of  his 
half-authenticated  experiments  is  a  sensationalist  who 
is  rightly  looked  down  upon  by  his  fellow-scientists. 
But  once  the  results  have  been  definitely  established, 
it  is  the  sacred  duty  of  the  scholar  to  share  them  with 
his  fellow-men.  This  is  the  attitude  which  Jewish 
learning  in  America  ought  to  adopt  towards  the 
practical  problems  of  Jewish  life.  While  keeping 
itself  aloof  from  the  dust  of  the  public  arena,  it  ought 
to  assume  with  energy  and  yet  with  dignity  its  right- 
ful position  as  guide  and  teacher.  It  ought  to  carry 
the  lofty  and  weighty  message  of  our  past  into  the 
midst  of  our  present-day  life  and  help  to  drive  from 
it  the  shallowness  and  emptiness  that  threaten  to 
blight  it.  It  should  enable  us  to  view  the  puzzling 
difficulties  of  the  fleeting  moment  in  the  broad 
perspective  of  our  history  and  help  us  to  find  a 
solution  which  shall  lift  us  beyond  the  narrow  horizon 
of  the  present  into  the  luminous  regions  of  a  Jewish 
future.  Such  is  the  great  and  honorable  function  of 
Jewish  learning  in  America. 

Having  emphasized  the  practical  aspect  of  Jewish 
learning  in  America,  I  should  be  untrue  to  my  own 
plea,  were  I  to  limit  myself  to  mere  theoretic  consider- 
ations. I  shall,  therefore,  attempt  to  offer  a  few 
practical  suggestions  looking  toward  a  more  regular 
and  more  fruitful  association  between  life  and  learning. 
It  is  not  my  intention  to  discuss  the  tasks  and  possi- 
bilities that  face  Jewish  scholarship  in  America  on  its 
purely  scientific  side.  There  are  other  men  in  our 
midst  who  can  speak  with  weight  and  authority  on 


322  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

this  particular  aspect  of  our  problem.  I  shall  confine 
myself  to  one  single  proposition  which,  though  of  a 
scientific  character,  borders  closely  on  practical  life. 
I  believe  we  Jews  can  claim  without  arrogance  that 
we  are  a  gifted  people.  But  it  seems  to  me  that  in 
few  other  branches  have  our  talents  been  so  strikingly 
displayed  as  in  the  domain  of  linguistics.  Corporately 
the  Jews  speak  nearly  all  the  languages  of  the  earth, 
and  we  often  jestingly  refer  to  the  fact  that,  not 
satisfied  with  the  natural  organs  of  expression,  we  try 
to  improve  upon  nature  by  forcing  our  limbs  into 
the  service  of  speech.  It  is  not  accidental  that  the 
creator  of  the  only  successful  international  language, 
the  Esperanto,  is  a  Jew,  and  one  might  name  on  the 
spur  of  the  moment  at  least  a  dozen  languages  which 
for  the  first  time  have  been  investigated  and  described 
by  Jewish  scholars.  Now  it  so  happens  that  we  have 
the  rare  fortune  of  being  the  contemporaries  of  a 
linguistic  phenomenon  which  stands  entirely  unparal- 
leled in  the  history  of  languages,  the  phenomenon  of 
a  tongue  which  thousands  of  years  ago  was  the  medium 
of  expression  of  a  great  nation  and  a  great  literature, 
which,  having  vanished  from  the  mouth  of  its  people, 
remained  deeply  rooted  in  its  head  and  its  heart,  and, 
after  accompanying  it  faithfully  in  all  its  wanderings 
and  vicissitudes,  now  rises  phoenix-like  before  us  in  its 
ancient  home.  The  only  drawback  of  this  wonderful 
linguistic  spectacle  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  is  our  own 
language,  developed  by  our  own  people  on  our  own 
soil.  I  refer  to  the  revival  of  the  Hebrew  language  in 
Palestine.  Now  whether  we  be  Zionists,  non-Zionists 
or  even  anti-Zionists,  whether  we  look  upon  Palestine 


JEWISH  LEARNING  IN  AMERICA  323 

as  the  land  of  our  fathers  or  as  the  land  of  our  children, 
or  whether  even  America  be  our  Zion  and  Washington 
our  Jerusalem,  the  fact  remains  that  the  rejuvenation 
of  the  Hebrew  language  in  Palestine  stands  without  a 
parallel  in  the  history  of  human  speech,  and  that  what 
the  most  authoritative  philologists  pronouned  to  be 
impossible  has  become  reality  before  our  very  eyes. 
What  then  would  be  more  natural  than  that  we  Jews 
should  be  the  first  to  study  and  the  first  to  present  to 
the  world  this  unique  linguistic  phenomenon  which  so 
marvellously  illustrates  the  contention  of  the  psalmist 
that  out  of  the  mouth  of  babes  and  sucklings  strength 
is  ordained?  What  a  disgrace  if  we  Jews  should  be 
preceded  by  others  in  a  domain  which  is  so  essentially 
and  peculiarly  our  own?  And  yet  the  danger  of  such 
a  disgrace  is  staring  us  in  the  face.  The  Germans  are 
very  active  in  Palestine  at  present,  and  active  not 
only  politically  but  also,  as  is  always  the  case  with 
them,  scientifically.  Only  lately  two  different  pres- 
entations of  the  Arabic  dialect  spoken  in  the  Holy 
Land  have  been  published  by  German  scholars.  And 
I  am  positively  haunted  by  the  fear  lest  one  day  I 
may  find  on  my  desk  a  bulky  volume  bearing  the 
bulky  title  "Ausfuehrliches  Lehrbuch  des  in  Palaestina 
gesprochenen  neu-hebraeischen  Idioms,'"  and  my  Jewish 
self-respect  will  have  received  a  slap  in  the  face. 
Verily  the  Jews  of  America  who  boast  of  their  practical 
sense  and  are  at  the  same  time  alive  to  the  claims  of 
Jewish  learning  cannot  neglect  this  particular  claim 
which  is  strictly  scientific  and  yet  borders  so  closely 
on  living  and  throbbing  reality. 

The  other  direction   in   which   Jewish   learning   in 
America  calls  for  stimulus  and  support  is  of  a  less 


324  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

technical  and  of  a  more  personal  character.  I  have 
pointed  out  a  moment  ago  that  a  certain  aloofness  in 
the  scholar  is  fully  justifiable,  and  that  too  intimate 
a  contact  with  the  crowd  may  even  prove  fatal  to  him. 
Yet  the  scholar  remains  a  human  being  just  the  same, 
and  like  every  other  human  being  he  needs  the 
sympathy  and  encouragement  of  his  fellow-men.  It 
is  a  fatal  mistake  to  think  that  financial  support  is  all 
that  scholarship  needs  and  calls  for.  Coarse  vegeta- 
bles may  well  thrive  on  the  moisture  they  receive  from 
the  soil ;  delicate  plants  require  in  addition  the  warming 
rays  of  the  sun.  What  brought  Jewish  learning  to 
such  glorious  blossom  in  Spain  were  not  alone  the 
liberal  stipends  of  the  Jewish  Maecenases,  but  their 
personal  interest,  their  readiness  and  their  ability  to 
learn  from  the  scholars  whose  patrons  they  were. 
What  in  a  later  age  made  Jewish  learning  in  Poland 
the  leading  factor  in  Jewish  life  was  certainly  not 
its  financial  substructure  nor  even  exclusively  its  reli- 
gious significance,  but  the  commanding  position  it 
occupied  in  the  social  fabric  of  the  people.  Theoreti- 
cally the  scholar  may  well  be  aware  of  the  importance 
of  his  vocation;  he  may  easily  persuade  himself  that 
the  broad  and  majestic  river  of  life  ultimately  goes 
back,  often  by  circuitous  and  subterranean  channels,  to 
those  far-off  sources  of  learning  which  lose  themselves 
in  the  mountains.  But  in  moments  of  lonesomeness 
and  despair,  when  his  hopefulness  is  blighted  and  his 
enthusiasm  is  stifled  by  the  indifference  and  ignorance 
that  surround  him,  the  feeling  steals  over  him  that  he 
may  after  all  be  but  a  superfluous  fixture  in  the  life 
of  the  community,  and  such  a  feeling  spells  instantan- 


JEWISH  LEARNING  IN  AMERICA  325 

eous  death  to  his  productivity  and  usefulness.  Old 
Europe  realized  this  danger  long  ago.  While  stingy 
in  her  material  support  of  learning,  she  has  managed 
by  a  cleverly  devised  system  of  social  recognition, 
such  as  titles,  medals,  prizes,  memberships  in  learned 
societies  and  numerous  contrivances  of  a  similar  order, 
to  coax  scientific  research  out  of  the  scholar  even  as 
honey  is  coaxed  out  of  the  bee.  We  in  the  new  world 
have,  thank  Heaven,  outlived  the  senilities  of  crafty 
old  Europe.  The  German  Titelwesen  has  no  attraction 
for  us,  and  the  artificial  distinctions  of  Europe  fail 
of  their  purpose  in  a  land  in  which  the  head  of  the 
nation  is  just  plain  Mr.  President.  But  what  the 
scholar  so  urgently  needs  and  so  sadly  lacks  is  social 
recognition  of  a  higher  kind,  the  recognition  that  he 
is  a  useful  and  valuable  member  of  society,  or,  what 
is  more,  the  opportunity  of  serving  as  such,  the 
realization  that  the  fruits  of  his  labor,  however 
circuitous  the  route  may  be,  will  ultimately  reach  the 
people  and  contribute  towards  its  progress. 

If  this  problem  which  deeply  affects  the  whole 
status  of  Jewish  scholarship  in  this  country  is  to  be 
solved,  I  believe  there  is  only  one  solution  for  it,  a 
solution  about  which  we  in  America  cannot  be  doubt- 
ful. For  if  there  is  anything  which  is  characteristic 
of  this  country  it  is  its  tendency  toward  corporate 
endeavor,  its  ability  to  merge  the  narrow  and  sluggish 
rivulets  of  individual  energy  into  the  broad  and  swift 
current  of  a  corporation  or  society.  "When  an 
American  has  an  idea,"  quoth  a  famous  French  writer, 
"he  directly  seeks  a  second  American  to  share  it.  If 
there  be  three,  they  elect  a  president  and  two  secretar- 


326  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

ies.  Given  four,  they  name  a  keeper  of  records  and 
the  office  is  ready  for  work;  five,  they  convene  a 
general  meeting  and  the  society  is  fully  constituted." 
The  number  of  Jewish  scholars  in  this  country  has, 
praise  be  to  Heaven,  long  ago  reached  the  minimum 
required  by  the  French  writer.  We  have  a  goodly 
number  of  men  who  as  professional  scholars  are  ac- 
tively engaged  in  the  various  branches  of  Jewish 
learning,  and  we  have  many  more  who  are  interested 
in  it  passively  as  amateurs  and  sympathizers.  And 
yet  there  is  not  a  single  society  or  organization 
which  should  represent  the  brotherhood  of  Jewish 
scholars  to  themselves  and  to  the  world.  There  is  in 
this  country  a  Society  of  Biblical  Literature,  made  up, 
with  few  exceptions,  of  Christian  theologians;  there  is 
an  American  Oriental  Society,  but  there  is  no  cor- 
responding organization  for  the  wide  field  of  Jewish 
scholarship.  What  we  need  is  a  Society  of  Jewish 
Learning  which  shall  bring  the  scholars  scattered  all 
over  this  land  into  personal  contact  with  one  another 
and  shall  set  the  standards  of  Jewish  scholarship. 
At  the  periodical  meetings  held  by  the  Society  the 
scholars  should  submit  to  one  another,  both  for 
instruction  and  inspection,  the  fruits  of  their  research, 
and  at  an  annual  gathering  the  broad  lines  of  progress 
in  the  field  of  Jewish  scholarship  should  be  made 
known  to  the  outside  world.  Such  a  society  will  no 
doubt  provide  a  considerable  amount  of  that  stimulus 
and  encouragement  which  Jewish  scholarship  needs 
and  up  to  the  present  still  lacks. 

Yet  another  organization  which  shall  even  more 
directly  render  Jewish  scholarship  useful  to  Jewish  life 


JEWISH  LEARNING  IN  AMERICA  327 

is  still  a  desideratum  in  this  country.  At  present  the 
Jewish  scholar  in  America  who  may  feel  inclined  to 
share  with  his  people  the  fruits  of  his  endeavors  and 
to  contribute  his  mite  towards  the  shaping  of  Jewish 
communal  life  has  no  means  of  doing  so,  without  ex- 
ceeding those  limits  of  propriety  with  which  a  wise 
convention  hedges  him  around.  The  medium  of  the 
book  unfortunately  reaches  but  the  "few,"  and  there 
is  no  journalistic  or  social  vehicle  of  which  the  Jewish 
scholar  can  avail  himself  without  loss  of  dignity, 
while  the  non-Jewish  agencies  which  are  generally 
far  more  effective  in  reaching  the  Jewish  public  are, 
as  a  rule,  hermetically  closed  to  him.  Now  what 
is  still  a  consummation  to  be  wished  for  here  is  an 
accomplished  fact  in  Germany.  German  Jewry, 
which  numbers  not  quite  one-fourth  of  the  Jewry  of 
America,  can  boast  of  no  less  than  two  hundred  and 
twenty-one  Societies  for  Jewish  History  and  Literature 
which  are  primarily  engaged  in  the  popularization  of 
Jewish  learning  and  offer  the  Jewish  scholar  an 
effective  and  yet  dignified  opportunity  to  communicate 
himself  to  the  Jewish  public.  There  is  scarcely  a 
town  in  Germany  which  does  not  possess  such  a 
society,  and  in  many  cases  the  local  society  is  identical 
in  its  membership  with  that  of  the  entire  community. 
In  these  societies  the  whole  immense  range  of  Jewish 
thought  and  life  is  viewed  in  the  broad  perspective  of 
Jewish  learning,  whether  it  be  a  topic  such  as  "the 
Logical  Foundations  of  the  Belief  in  God,"  or  some 
practical  problem  of  German-Jewish  life.  These 
two  hundred  and  twenty-one  societies  are  united  in  a 
large  central  organization,  at  the  head  of  which  are  to 


328  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

be  found  some  of  the  leading  scholars  and  some  of  the 
most  eminent  men  of  affairs  of  German  Jewry.  Of 
course,  I  do  not  contend  that  this  German  model  must 
or  can  be  exactly  reproduced  in  this  country.  Condi- 
tions here  are  vastly  different,  and  I  have  picked  up 
sufficient  American  patriotism  to  persuade  myself  that 
in  many  respects  we  can  do  things  better  than  the 
people  on  the  other  side.  But  the  fundamental  idea 
underlying  this  organization,  which  has  in  part  also 
been  imitated  in  England,  is  an  absolute  necessity  in 
this  country,  if  Jewish  learning,  instead  of  becoming  a 
dead  weight  upon  American  Jewry,  shall  again  be  a 
"tree  of  life"  for  the  Jewish  people  and  exercise  a 
steadying  and  ennobling  influence  on  the  life  and 
thought  of  this  community. 

And  finally,  whatever  we  decide  to  do  in  support  of 
Jewish  learning  in  America,  let  us  do  it  quickly.  We 
live  in  a  critical  moment  of  our  history,  critical  in  the 
literal  sense  of  the  word,  for  the  very  next  step  will 
decide  the  future  course  of  our  development.  The 
Jewish  people,  whose  life  has  not  been  allowed  to 
flow  in  a  broad  and  smooth  river-bed,  resembles  that 
wonderful  natural  phenomenon,  the  geysers  or 
intermittent  springs,  which,  having  accumulated 
tremendous  forces  under  ground,  suddenly  shoot 
forth  to  great  heights  and  then  remain  silent.  We  in 
America  are  on  the  eve  of  such  a  magnificent  outburst, 
for  we  have  been  gradually  and  unobservedly  accumu- 
lating the  immense  stores  of  energy  of  European 
Jewry,  and  they  are  now  seeking  an  outlet.  Woe  to 
us  if  we  allow  the  next  spurting  forth  of  our  strength 
to  go  to  waste,  if  we  fail  to  catch  the  precious  liquid 


JEWISH  LEARNING  IN  AMERICA  329 

of  Jewish  productivity  and  to  preserve  it  for  the  future. 
Now  is  the  time  to  rear  the  structure  of  Jewish  learning 
in  America  and  to  secure  for  it  its  rightful  position  in 
the  life  of  the  community.  The  opportunities  which 
are  at  our  disposal  now  may  be  lost  irretrievably  in 
the  next  generation.  In  the  springtime  of  the  Science 
of  Judaism  its  founders  looked  forward  to  the  moment 
when  the  child  of  their  care  would  be  taken  over  by 
non-Jews  and  be  granted  a  place  at  the  universities  as 
a  part  of  the  general  culture  of  mankind.  But  now 
that  bitter  experience  has  shown  us  how  the  hatred  of 
the  Jew  has  penetrated  even  into  the  sacred  precincts 
of  science,  and  how  Jewish  learning,  distorted  by  bias 
and  prejudice,  has  been  brandished  as  a  weapon  against 
Judaism,  we  realize  more  clearly  than  ever  that  we  are 
the  natural  and  rightful  guardians  of  our  own  vineyard. 
And  standing,  as  we  do,  on  the  threshold  of  a  new 
period,  a  period  which  we  hope  will  figure  in  future 
Jewish  history  as  the  Rise  of  Jewish  Learning  in 
America,  we  cannot  but  be  guided  by  the  motto  of  the 
wise  Hillel:  "If  I  am  not  for  myself,  who  is  for  my- 
self?" and,  above  all,  "If  not  now,  when  then?" 


XVIII 
THE  PRESENT  CRISIS  IN  AMERICAN  JEWRY. 

A    PLEA    FOR    RECONCILIATION.* 

VARIOUS  occurrences  of  recent  date  have  revealed 
a  rift  in  American  Jewry  which  if  not  healed  in 
time  is  likely  to  result  in  a  permanent  schism.  The 
agitation  centering  around  the  question  of  a  Jewish 
Congress  is  not  the  cause  of  this  rift;  it  is  rather  an 
effect  or  a  symptom  betokening  the  profound  difference 
of  opinion  and  sentiment  which  at  present  divides  the 
Jews  of  America.  In  the  re-alignment  of  American 
Jewry  which  this  struggle  is  calling  forth  the  Zionists 
and  the  non-Zionists  of  this  country — the  former 
centering  around  their  local  organization,  the  latter 
largely  represented  by  the  American  Jewish  Com- 
mittee-— have  been  taking  opposite  sides.  Those  of 
us  whose  Judaism  is  broad  enough  to  embrace  with 
equal  loyalty  the  ideals  of  Zionism  and  the  interests  of 
American  Judaism  cannot  but  view  with  the  deepest 
concern  the  possibility  of  a  permanent  conflict  be- 

*Published  in  the  Menorah  Journal,  December,  1915.  The 
article  is  based  on  a  memorandum  submitted  by  the  writer  to  a 
leading  Zionist  in  June,  1915.  Though  the  issue  of  an  American- 
Jewish  Congress,  discussed  in  the  present  article,  has  been  pushed 
into  the  background  by  the  exigencies  of  war,  the  questions  con- 
nected with  it  are  still  as  vitally  important  today  as  they  were 
three  years  ago.  [  Since  writing  the  above  the  American-Jewish 
Congress  was  held  in  December,  1918,  and  proved  a  magnificent 
demonstration  of  the  essential  unity  of  American  Israel.! 


332  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

tween  these  two  sections  of  American  Jewry,  a  conflict 
fraught  with  the  gravest  consequences,  not  only  foi 
the  Jewish  cause  in  this  country  in  general  but  also  for 
the  Zionist  movement — a  conflict,  moreover,  in  which 
no  victory  achieved  by  either  side  can  be  anything 
but  a  Pyrrhic  victory. 

The  situation  is  one  that  demands  careful  thought 
and  delicate  action.  Only  a  few  of  us  are  in  a  position 
to  influence  the  course  of  events  by  acting,  but  many 
of  us  may  help  to  clarify  the  situation  by  thinking. 
A  correct  diagnosis  is  an  indispensable  preliminary  to 
a  cure,  and  it  is  only  by  finding  out  whether  the 
issues  underlying  the  present  struggle  represent  a 
chronic  and  perhaps  irremediable  conflict,  or  are 
rather  the  effect  of  an  acute  and  therefore  curable 
misunderstanding  that  a  proper  solution  may  be 
discovered  and  proposed.  It  is  from  this  point  of  view 
that  an  attempt  is  here  made  to  analyze  the  present 
situation  in  American  Jewry,  to  trace  the  causes 
which  have  produced  it,  and  to  point  out  the  con- 
sequences which  are  unavoidable  unless  a  remedy  be 
applied  in  time. 

To  my  mind  there  are  two  fundamental  issues  which 
separate  the  two  groups  in  American  Jewry  from  one 
another.  They  may  be  expressed  in  the  following 
formulas:  1.  Diaspora  versus  Palestine;  2.  Religion 
versus  Nationalism. 

Without  any  desire  to  lose  myself  in  philosophic 
subtleties,  I  shall,  for  the  sake  of  brevity,  adopt  the 
Hegelian  phraseology  and  explain  the  development 
of  these  issues  on  the  principle  of  Thesis,  Antithesis 
and  Synthesis,  i.  e.,  of  the  initial  prevalence  of  one 


THE  PRESENT  CRISIS  IN  AMERICAN  JEWRY    333 


extreme,  of  its  yielding  subsequently  to  the  opposite 
extreme,  and  of  the  final  harmonization  of  the  two  in  a 
higher  unity,  combining  the  essential  features  of  both. 
I  shall  endeavor  to  point  out  that  the  Synthesis  forms 
the  ground  on  which  both  parties  may  co-operate, 
without  sacrificing  an  iota  of  their  respective  convic- 
tions. 

The  first  issue,  expressed  in  the  formula  Diaspora 
versus  Palestine,  hinges  on  the  question  as  to  whether 
the  Jewish  people  finds  its  best  opportunities  for 
development  in  the  Diaspora,  i.  e.,  as  an  integral  part 
of  the  nations  in  whose  midst  it  lives,  or,  away  from 
the  other  nations,  as  a  separate  entity,  on  its  own  soil 
in  Palestine. 

When  modern  Jewry,  after  the  isolation  of  centuries, 
suddenly  emerged  from  the  Ghetto  to  seek  a  place  in 
the  sun  in  the  midst  of  the  Christian  environment,  the 
thesis  adopted  by  it  was  Diaspora.  Consumed  with 
the  desire  for  emancipation,  for  sharing  the  benefits 
and  attractions  of  the  new  life  around  them,  the  Jews 
discarded  the  hope  for  an  independent  national  ex- 
istence in  Palestine,  which  had  been  their  lode-star 
throughout  the  ages.  Diaspora  as  opposed  to 
Palestine,  and  as  exclusive  of  it,  became  the  slogan 
of  emancipated  Jewry.  The  Jewish  religion  was 
refitted  to  harmonize  with  this  new  striving  for 
material  and  cultural  progress.  Reform  Judaism 
arose,  the  main  object  of  which  was  to  break  down 
the  previous  separateness  of  the  Jews ;  and  the  theory 
of  a  "Jewish  mission"  sprang  into  life,  not  as  a 
spontaneous  growth  of  Jewish  tradition,  but  as  a 
forced  hot-house  product  of  practical   life — a  theory 


334  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

which  proclaimed  that  an  isolated  Jewish  existence 
in  Palestine  was  subversive  of  the  very  essence  of 
Judaism,  that  the  mission  of  the  Jewish  people  was  to 
propagate  monotheism  among  the  nations  of  the 
earth,  and  that  this  mission  could  only  be  carried 
out  in  the  Dispersion,  in  the  midst  of  the  nations 
which  were  to  be  the  objects  of  that  mission. 

As  time  progressed,  however,  the  Diaspora  thesis 
gradually  lost  its  force.  Emancipation  failed  to  fulfill 
the  ardent  hopes  attached  to  it.  The  nations  refused 
to  allow  the  Jews  to  participate  fully  and  unrestrictedly 
in  the  general  life  of  the  country.  Anti-Semitism, 
manifesting  itself  in  the  crude  form  of  hatred,  or  under 
the  subtle  guise  of  prejudice,  turned,  in  many  cases, 
the  liberties  previously  granted  to  the  Jews  into  a 
scrap  of  paper.  On  the  other  hand,  the  dangers  of 
this  extreme  Diaspora  Judaism,  at  first  little  thought 
of,  began  to  loom  larger  and  larger.  The  rush  for 
emancipation  threatened  not  only  to  disrupt  the 
unity  of  the  Jewish  people  throughout  the  world, 
which  had  been  maintained  during  the  ages  of  suffering 
and  persecution,  but  it  also  led  large  and  important 
sections  of  Jewry  to  assimilation,  that  is,  to  complete 
absorption. 

As  a  protest  against  the  thesis  Diaspora  its 
opposite  came  to  life,  the  antithesis  Palestine. 
Political  Zionism  sprang  into  being,  loudly  proclaiming 
that  emancipation  was  a  failure;  that  Judaism  had  no 
chance  of  life  in  the  Dispersion,  and  that  the  only 
salvation  of  Jewry  lay  in  being  transferred  to  Palestine. 
Zionism  or  Assimilation  was   the  alternative  placed 


THE  PRESENT  CRISIS  IN  AMERICAN  JEWRY    335 

before  the  Jewish  people.  All  efforts  of  Jewry,  as  the 
last  attempt  to  escape  annihilation,  were  to  be  focused 
on  the  obtaining  of  a  publicly  and  legally  assured 
home  in  Palestine.  All  Jewish  endeavors  in  the 
Diaspora  were  deprecated,  because  consecrated  to  a 
cause  which  was  foredoomed    to  failure. 

It  was  not  long  before  the  antithesis,  too,  began  to 
reveal  its  deficiencies.  The  difficulties  of  reaching  the 
Zionist  goal  very  soon  proved  far  greater  than  had 
been  anticipated  in  the  blissful  ecstasy  of  the  Zionist 
honeymoon.  The  ultimate  consummation  of  the 
national  hope  receded  further  and  further  before  the 
longing  gaze  of  the  Jewish  people,  and  no  longer  held 
out  an  immediate  remedy  for  the  pressing  needs  of 
suffering  Jewry.  The  conviction  also  gradually  ga  ined 
ground  that,  even  under  the  most  favorable  of  cir- 
cumstances, Palestine  could  only  harbor  a  fraction  of 
the  Jewish  people,  and  that  the  vast  bulk  of  the  Jews 
would  still  remain  in  the  lands  of  the  Diaspora. 
Zionists  who  were  looking  reality  in  the  face  could  not 
accept  the  view  of  the  extremists,  who  were  ready  to 
save  a  small  portion  of  the  Jewish  people  at  the  cost  of 
abandoning  to  its  fate  the  enormous  majority  thereof. 

As  a  result,  anew  formula  asserted  itself :  Diaspora 
plus  Palestine,  It  was  the  combination  between  the 
two  extremes  of  Diaspora  existence  and  Palestine 
existence.  This  synthesis,  generally  called  Cultural 
or  Spiritual  Zionism,  proclaimed  that  Palestine  was 
indispensable  for  the  continuation  of  Judaism,  for  it 
was  the  only  spot  where  the  spirit  of  Judaism,  undis- 
turbed by  conflicting  influences,  could  develop  nor- 


336  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

mally  and  unfold  all  its  hidden  possibilities,  and  the 
only  bond  of  unity  which  could  save  the  scattered 
members  of  the  race  from  falling  asunder  into  dis- 
jointed fragments.  The  Diaspora,  on  the  other  hand, 
as  the  dwelling  place  of  the  overwhelming  majority 
of  the  Jewish  people,  had  problems  of  its  own  which 
clamored  equally  for  solution. 

Hence  the  Jewish  task  became  a  double  one:  the 
Jews  in  every  country,  while  participating  to  the  full 
in  the  life  of  their  environment — for  the  return  to  the 
Ghetto  was  neither  desirable  nor  possible — had  to 
endeavor  to  secure  a  maximum  of  elbow-room  for  the 
development  of  their  own  section  of  Jewry,  while  as 
part  of  universal  Israel  they  had  to  keep  up  their  con- 
tact with  the  Jews  throughout  the  world  and  labor 
with  them  for  the  realization  of  the  common  Jewish 
hope,  that  of  a  spiritual  center  in  the  historic  land  of 
Judaism.  Diaspora  without  Palestine  was  impossi- 
ble, because  without  the  refreshing  breath  of  a 
healthy  Jewish  life  in  Palestine  it  was  bound  to  wither 
and  dry  up.  Palestine  without  the  Diaspora  was 
equally  impossible,  because  it  lacked  the  backing  of 
the  people  as  a  whole,  and  was  in  danger  of  becoming 
a  petty  and  obscure  corner  in  the  vast  expanse  of  the 
Jewish  Dispersion,  a  sort  of  Jewish  Nigeria. 

This  synthesis  was  not  a  pale  cast  of  thought,  the 
flimsy  product  of  an  imaginative  brain.  It  had  its 
prototype  in  the  actual  facts  of  history.  For  during 
several  centuries  preceding  the  dissolution  of  the 
Jewish  state,  Palestine  was  the  spiritual  center  of 
Judaism,    in    the    sense    just    indicated.     The    Jews 


THE  PRESENT  CRISIS  IN  AMERICAN  JEWRY    337 

outside  of  Palestine  were  superior,  not  only  in  num- 
bers, but  also  in  wealth  and  influence,  to  those  of 
Palestine.  The  Jews  of  Egypt,  and  the  same  applies 
to  other  countries  of  that  period,  were  closely  associated 
with  the  cultural  and  material  aspirations  of  their 
environment.  Philo  was  one  of  the  most  illustrious 
representatives  of  the  Hellenic  culture  of  his  age. 
These  Diaspora  Jews  even  found  it  necessary  to 
translate  the  Holy  Writings  into  Greek.  Yet  they 
were,  at  the  same  time,  loyal  to  Palestine.  They 
paid  their  Shekel,  they  made  their  annual  pilgrimages 
to  Jerusalem,  and  looked  upon  the  Holy  Land  as 
the  spiritual  center  of  all  Jewry. 

The  other  fundamental  issue  on  which  Jewish 
opinion  is  divided  is  closely  associated  with  the 
preceding  one ;  it  hinges  on  the  formula  Religion 
versus  Nationalism.  From  its  earliest  beginnings 
down  to  the  time  of  modern  emancipation,  Judaism 
represented  an  indissoluble  combination  of  national- 
ism and  religion.  Though  ultimately  intended  to 
appeal  to  the  whole  of  humanity,  Judaism  was  essen- 
tially a  national  religion.  Its  bearer  was  a  national 
community  which  jealously  guarded  its  racial  purity, 
and  its  external  manifestations  assumed  tht  forms  of  a 
national  life.  Again,  the  Jewish  people  was,  first  and 
foremost,  a  religious  nation.  Its  sole  reason  for 
existence  was,  in  the  belief  of  every  one  of  its  members, 
"to  know  the  Lord"  and  to  make  Him  known  to  others. 
A  Jew  who  did  not  believe  in  the  fundamentals  of  the 
Jewish  creed  or  who  did  not  observe  the  funda- 
mentals of  the  Jewish  ceremonial  was  as  much  of  a 


338  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

monstrosity  as  the  Jew  who  denied  the  common  racial 
descent  of  the  Jews  in  the  past,  or  their  common 
national  destiny  in  the  future. 

The  departure  of  the  Jews  from  the  Ghetto  and 
their  entrance  into  modern  life  marked  a  turning- 
point  also  in  this  direction.  Filled  with  the  desire  of 
becoming  part  of  the  nations  in  whose  midst  they 
lived,  modern  Jews  were  ready,  and  thought  they 
were  compelled,  to  deny  the  national  character  of 
Judaism.  The  Jews  were  now  labeled  as  Germans  or 
Frenchmen  of  the  Mosaic  persuasion,  who  were 
divided  from  their  fellow-citizens  by  the  purely 
spiritual  affiliations  of  religious  faith — the  same 
affiliations  which  divided  the  Christian  population. 
Here,  too,  Reform  Judaism  was  quick  to  meet  the 
demands  of  practical  life.  It  began  to  chop  off  all 
the  elements  in  Judaism  which  betrayed  a  national 
character,  both  in  the  domain  of  doctrine  and  of 
practice,  though  it  halted  half  way,  and  down  to  this 
day  still  acknowledges,  in  flagrant  contradiction  with 
its  own  theory,  a  number  of  rites  and  ceremonies  which 
bear  an  unmistakable  racial  imprint. 

This  transformation  of  Judaism,  or  rather  this 
transformation  of  Jewish  terminology — for,  in  many 
cases,  it  was  merely  a  question  of  terms — was  greatly 
stimulated  by  the  development  of  nationalism  in 
Western  Europe,  where  the  structure  of  the  modern 
state  excluded,  or  was  thought  to  exclude,  a  diversity 
of  nationalities,  while  the  principle  of  religious 
toleration  left  enough  room  for  a  variety  of  religious 
beliefs.     As    a    result,  those  Jews  who  had  lost  their 


THE  PRESENT  CRISIS  IN  AMERICAN  JEWRY    339 

religious  affiliations  were  bound  to  feel  that  they  were 
outcasts  in  the  religious  community  of  Israel;  they 
became  either  konfessionslos  or,  by  a  curious  perversion 
of  logic  and  conscience,  became  members  of  the 
dominant  faith. 

The  thesis  "Judaism  qua  Religion"  was  followed  by 
the  antithesis  "Judaism  qua  Nationalism."  It  is 
interesting  to  observe  that  the  antithesis  came  from 
the  Jews  of  Eastern  Europe  who,  in  their  overwhelm- 
ing majority,  were  adherents  of  strict  orthodoxy. 
Those  Jews  of  Russia  and  Poland  who  had  drifted 
away  from  their  religious  moorings  were  neither 
psychologically  nor  physically  in  a  position  to  aban- 
don Judaism;  psychologically,  because  they  were  too 
strongly  saturated  with  Jewish  culture  and  Jewish 
associations  to  tear  themselves  away  from  the  in- 
fluence of  Judaism;  physically,  because  they  were 
excluded  from  participating  in  the  life  of  the  environ- 
ment and  were  forced  to  remain  within  the  fold. 
Living  as  the  Eastern  Jews  did  in  compact  masses, 
they  found  it  easier,  both  in  theory  and  in  practice, 
to  emphasize  the  national  aspect  of  the  Jewish  com- 
munity. As  a  result,  a  doctrine  sprang  up  which 
looked  upon  Jewry  as  an  essentially  racial  or  national 
entity,  in  which  religion  was  merely  one  of  the  many 
passing  phases  of  its  historical  development.  If 
among  the  champions  of  the  thesis  "Religion"  there 
were  Jews  who  celebrated  the  Ninth  of  Ab  as  a 
holiday,  because  it  marked,  in  their  eyes,  the  end  of 
Jewry  as  a  nation,  there  were,  among  the  others, 
the  adherents  of  the  antithesis  "Nationalism,"  Jews 


340  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

who  arranged  entertainments  on  the  Day  of  Atone- 
ment, as  a  public  protest  against  the  religious  char- 
acter ascribed  to  Judaism. 

Here,  too,  the  synthesis  was  gradually  paving  its 
way,  and  the  formula  "Religion  plus  Nationalism" 
was  supplanting  the  thesis  "Judaism  qua  Religion" 
and  the  antithesis  "Judaism  qua  Nationalism." 
The  religionists,  that  is,  the  believers  in  the  purely 
religious  character  of  Judaism,  began  to  realize  the 
devastating  effect  of  their  doctrine  on  Jewish  life 
and  development,  while  the  nationalists,  without 
sacrificing  their  convictions — for  religion,  least  of  all 
sentiments,  can  be  forced  on  modern  men — began 
to  appreciate  the  overwhelming  influence  of  the 
Jewish  religion  as  an  historic  factor  in  the  life  of  the 
Jewish  people,  and  were  ready  to  acknowledge  the 
difficulty  and  the  danger  of  squeezing  an  officially 
nationalistic  Jewry  into  the  narrow  frame  of  the 
modern  Nationalstaat. 

This  mutual  rapprochement  resulted  gradually  in  a 
tacit  agreement — an  agreement  far  more  durable 
than  a  legal  compact,  because  founded  on  sentiment 
rather  than  on  law — which  implied  the  recognition 
of  Judaism  as  composed  of  Religion  and  Nationalism, 
but  left  sufficient  room  to  include  the  two  extreme 
types  of  Jews:  those  whose  loyalty  to  Judaism  was 
entirely  fed  from  the  fountain  of  religion,  and  those 
whose  devotion  to  Judaism  was  altogether  grounded  in 
race  consciousness. 

This  development,  which  may  be  traced  in  various 
countries  of  modern  Europe,  nowhere  assumed  such 


THE  PRESENT  CRISIS  IN  AMERICAN  JEWRY     341 

huge  proportions  and  such  striking  manifestations  as 
it  did  in  America.  The  struggle,  hinging  on  the  two 
opposite  doctrines,  was  nowhere  else  so  well  defined 
and  nowhere  else  fraught  with  so  many  tangible 
consequences  as  in  America,  for  the  reason  that 
American  Jewry,  as  no  other  Jewry  in  the  world, 
was  made  up  of  two  different  elements,  sharply 
divided  in  their  traditions  and  associations,  as  well  a 
in  their  mental  and  psychological  complexion.  The 
Jews  hailing  from  the  lands  of  emancipation  in  Western 
Europe,  who  are  conventionally,  though  not  quite 
accurately,  designated  as  German  Jews,  brought  over 
with  them  the  theses  Diaspora  as  against  Palestine, 
and  Religion  as  against  Nationalism.  The  immi- 
grants from  Eastern  Europe,  the  children  of  the 
Ghetto,  who  with  equal  inaccuracy  are  termed 
Russian  Jews,  carried  with  them  the  antithesis 
Palestine  as  against  Diaspora  and,  as  represented  by 
the  extremists  among  them,  Nationalism  as  against 
Religion.  The  fanatics  of  Diaspora  Judaism  and  of 
Judaism  as  a  pure  faith  are  to  be  found  exclusively 
among  the  "German"  Jews.  The  radical  adherents 
of  Palestine  and  of  Jewish  nationalism  are  recruited 
entirely  from  the  ranks  of  the  "Russian"  Jews. 

These  issues  were  of  particular  and  immediate 
significance  to  the  Jews  in  this  country;  for  America 
has,  in  less  than  one  generation,  become  the  second 
largest  center  of  the  Jewish  Disapora,  and  bids  fair 
to  become  the  first,  instead  of  the  second,  within 
another  generation.  No  other  country  in  the  world 
offers,  even  approximately,  such  a  favorable  combina- 


342  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

tion  of  opportunities  for  the  development  of  a  Diaspora 
Judaism,  as  does  America:  economic  possibilities,  vast 
and  sparsely  populated  territories,  freedom  of  action, 
liberty  of  conscience,  equality  of  citizenship,  apprecia- 
tion of  the  fundamentals  of  Judaism,  variety  of 
population,  excluding  a  rigidly  nationalistic  state 
policy,  and  other  similar  factors.  It  is  no  wonder, 
therefore,  that  in  no  other  country  did  Reform  Juda- 
ism, as  the  incarnation  of  Diaspora  Judaism,  attain 
such  luxurious  growth  as  it  did  in  America.  It  dis- 
carded, more  radically  than  in  Europe,  the  national 
elements  still  clinging  to  Judaism,  and  it  solemnly 
proclaimed  that  Judaism  was  wholly  and  exclusively 
a  religious  faith,  and  that  America  was  the  Zion 
and  Washington  the  Jerusalem  of  American  Israel. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  emigrants  from  Russia 
brought  the  antithesis  on  the  scene.  They  quickly 
perceived  the  decomposing  effect  of  American  life 
upon  Jewish  doctrine  and  practice,  and  they  became 
convinced  more  firmly  than  ever  that  Diaspora 
Judaism  was  a  failure,  and  that  the  only  antidote  was 
Palestine  and  nothing  but  Palestine.  The  nationalists 
among  them  beheld  in  the  very  same  factors  in  which 
the  German  Jews  saw  the  possibilities  of  a  Diaspora 
Judaism  the  chances  for  organizing  Jewry  on  purely 
nationalistic  lines.  Nowhere  else,  except  perhaps  in 
Russia,  can  be  found  a  greater  amount  of  Palestinian 
sentiment,  as  well  as  a  larger  manifestation  of  a 
one-sided  Jewish  nationalism,  than  is  to  be  met  with 
in  this  country. 

This  conflict  of  ideas  became  extraordinarily  aggra- 
vated by  numerous  influences  of  a  personal  character. 


THE  PRESENT  CRISIS  IN  AMERICAN  JEWRY    343 

The  division  between  the  so-called  German  Jews  and 
the  so-called  Russian  Jews  was  not  limited  to  a  differ- 
ence in  theory.  It  was  equally  nourished  by  far- 
reaching  differences  in  economic  and  social  position 
and  in  the  entire  range  of  mental  development. 
The  German  Jews  were  the  natives ;  the  Russian  Jews 
were  the  newcomers.  The  German  Jews  were  the 
rich;  the  Russian  Jews  were  the  poor.  The  German 
Jews  were  the  dispensers  of  charity;  the  Russian 
Jews  were  the  receivers  of  it.  The  German  Jews  were 
the  employers;  the  Russian  Jews  were  the  employees. 
The  German  Jews  were  deliberate,  reserved,  practical, 
sticklers  for  formalities,  with  a  marked  ability  for 
organization;  the  Russian  Jews  were  quick-tempered, 
emotional,  theorizing,  haters  of  formalities,  with  a 
decided  bent  toward  individualism.  An  enormous 
amount  of  explosives  had  been  accumulating  between 
the  two  sections  which  if  lit  by  a  spark  might  have 
wrecked  the  edifice  of  American  Israel  while  yet  in  the 
process  of  construction. 

And  yet,  not  only  was  the  conflict  averted,  but  the 
impending  struggle  gave  way  to  hearty  and  ex- 
tensive cooperation,  such  as  cannot  be  witnessed 
elsewhere  in  the  whole  Jewish  world  (one  recalls 
particularly  the  analogy  of  England)  where  East  and 
West  seem  never  to  meet.  As  the  two  sections  came 
into  closer  contact  with  one  another,  they  learned 
to  understand  one  another  and  to  appreciate  their 
respective  points  of  view.  This  cooperation  was  not 
founded  upon  the  flimsy  framework  of  political 
expediency.  It  was  grounded  in  that  synthesis  of 
Jewish    life   which   combines   in   a   higher   unity   the 


344  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

essential  elements  of  the  doctrines  formerly  believed 
to  be  exclusive  of  one  another.  The  German  Jews, 
while  emphasizing  the  needs  of  Diaspora  Judaism 
and  anxious  to  build  up  its  largest  manifestation  in 
America,  learned  to  appreciate  the  quickening  and 
ennobling  effect  upon  the  Diaspora  of  a  normal 
Hebrew  life  in  Palestine,  and  became  interested  in  the 
regeneration  of  the  Holy  Land.  The  Russian  Jews, 
on  the  other  hand,  though  laying  particular  stress  on 
the  possibilities  of  Judaism  in  Palestine,  put  their 
shoulder  to  the  wheel  and  were  ready  to  assist  in 
rearing  the  great  structure  of  Judaism  in  America. 
The  so-called  religionists,  while  looking  upon  Judaism 
as  a  faith,  were  yet  disinclined  to  repudiate  the  purely 
nationalistic  Jews,  whose  enthusiasm  and  devotion 
they  admired,  even  though  it  flowed  from  a  source 
they  did  not  officially  acknowledge.  The  so-called 
nationalists,  basing  their  Judaism  on  race  conscious- 
ness, realized  that  a  common  foundation  of  Judaism 
in  this  country  could  only  be  laid  along  the  lines  of 
religious  affiliation. 

This  cooperation  found  tangible  expression  in  the 
recent  participation  of  American  Jews  in  the  upbuild- 
ing of  Palestine,  a  participation  which  one  will  vainly 
look  for  in  a  similar  group — I  am  not  speaking  of 
isolated  individuals — in  other  countries.  The  same 
desire  for  a  better  understanding  was  further  em- 
bodied in  the  movement  toward  Kehillah  organiza- 
tion, which,  though  centering  around  the  Jewish 
religion,  still  clearly  implied  the  national  element  in 
Judaism. 


THE  PRESENT  CRISIS  IN  AMERICAN  JEWRY     345 

There  was  every  reason  to  hope  that  this  co- 
operation, which  had  been  so  happily  inaugurated 
between  the  two  sections,  would  become  more  inti- 
mate and  more  extensive,  and  that  the  interaction 
of  the  heterogeneous  elements  of  American  Jewish  life 
would  resolve  itself  in  a  great  and  strong  harmony. 
America  bade  fair  to  become  an  ideal  Jewish  center, 
where  the  practical  wisdom  of  emancipated  Jewry 
and  the  idealistic  intensity  of  Ghetto  Jewry  would  be 
merged  in  one  united  Jewish  community,  fully  con- 
scious of  its  duty  as  the  future  leader  of  the  Jewish 
Diaspora  and  acknowledging  its  indebtedness  to  the 
center  of  all  Jewry  in  the  Land  of  our  Fathers. 

Suddenly,  however,  a  reaction  seems  to  have  set  in, 
which  threatens  to  disrupt  the  harmony  hitherto 
prevailing.  This  reaction,  which  is  fraught  with 
grave  consequences  for  the  future  of  American 
Judaism  no  less  than  for  the  Zionist  movement,  dates 
from,  or  at  least  coincides  with,  the  struggle  centering 
around  the  Haifa  Technikum.  This  is  not  the  place 
to  enter  into  an  analysis  of  that  momentous  issue. 
It  is  enough  to  state  that  the  bond  of  unity  was 
disrupted  with  rude  hands,  and  the  old  conflict  hinging 
on  the  issues  of  Diaspora  and  Nationalism  broke  out 
with  new  fury.  Again  we  see  Diaspora  Judaism 
pitted  against  Palestinian  Judaism,  and  Religion 
against  Nationalism.  Reason  has  given  way  to 
passion,  and  discrimination  to  generalization.  The 
Jews  of  the  new  Palestine,  who  have  given  of  their 
life-blood  to  the  rejuvenation  of  our  homeland,  are 
sweepingly  declared  to  be  "anarchists,"  while,  on  the 


346  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

other  hand,  American  Jews  who,  with  single-hearted 
devotion,  have  been  the  builders  of  the  great  Jewish 
center  in  the  New  World,  are  contemptuously  sneered 
at  as  "assimilationists." 

In  this  mood  of  distrust  and  prejudice,  American 
Jewry  was  overtaken  by  the  great  crisis  resulting  from 
the  World  War,  and  the  disharmony  prevailing 
between  the  two  factions  soon  found  tangible  ex- 
pression in  the  struggle  over  a  Jewish  Congress. 
The  two  elements  of  American  Jewry  were  clearly 
divided  on  the  issue:  the  German  or  native  Jews, 
represented  by  leading  members  of  the  American 
Jewish  Committee,  were  opposed  to  the  calling  of  a 
congress,  while  the  Russian  or  immigrant  Jews, 
speaking  largely  through  the  Zionist  organization, 
clamored  for  it. 

From  what  has  preceded  I  believe  it  may  be  safely 
concluded  that  this  demand  for  a  Congress  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  opposition  to  it  on  the  other,  are  not 
rooted  in  diametrically  opposed  and  deeply  implanted 
theories  of  Judaism  but  are  rather  the  expression  of 
different  moods  or  temperaments.  The  immigrant 
Jews,  who  were  directly  concerned  in  the  war,  since 
its  horrors  affected  their  homelands  and  the  kin  they 
'eft  behind,  and  who  were  impulsive  and  sentimental, 
felt  the  burning  need  of  crying  out  in  their  despair, 
and  were  ready  to  face  the  consequences  which  might 
result  from  this  outcry.  The  native  Jews,  whose 
sympathy  with  their  far-off  brethren,  profound  though 
it  was,  could  hardly,  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  be 
more   than   indirect,  and  whose  accustomed   reserve 


THE  PRESENT  CRISIS  IN  AMERICAN  JEWRY    347 

and  self-restraint  enabled  them  to  judge  the  issues 
more  calmly,  shrunk  from  the  risks  which  in  their 
opinion  were  implied  in  an  open  protest  of  the  Jewish 
people  before  the  inflamed  public  opinion  of  the  non- 
Jewish  world.  It  is  not  my  intention,  nor  is  it  my 
function,  to  render  judgment  in  so  momentous  an 
hour  on  an  issue  concerning  which  Jewish  opinion  is 
diametrically  yet  honestly  divided.  But  it  is  neces- 
sary to  point  out  that  whichever  side  may  be  in  the 
right — serious  as  may  be  the  dangers  of  holding  a 
congress  or  not,  the  dangers  involved  in  a  split  over 
this  question  are  incalculably  more  serious.  Such  a 
split  may  not  only  result  in  permanent  and  perhaps 
irreparable  injury  to  the  Jewish  cause  in  America 
and  to  the  Zionist  movement  in  this  country,  but 
may  also,  by  aligning  the  two  sections  of  American 
Jewry  against  one  another,  spell  nothing  short  of 
disaster  to  the  Jewish  people  as  a  whole.  The  stakes 
involved  in  this  conflict  are  infinitely  greater  than  the 
issue  which  has  given  rise  to  it. 

So  far  as  American  Judaism  is  concerned,  the 
practical  results  of  this  strife  between  Zionists  and 
non-Zionists  in  America — to  leave  aside  all  theo- 
retical considerations — may  prove  to  be  fatal.  It 
will  reopen  the  gap  between  the  two  elements  of 
American  Jewry  which  had  almost  been  closed. 
The  work  of  American  Judaism  has  been  done  by 
both  elements.  Prominent  non-Zionists  and  even 
anti-Zionists  have  frequently  and  gratefully  acknowl- 
edged the  debt  which  American  Israel  owes  to  the 
cooperation    of    the    Zionists.     The    institutions    of 


348  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

American  Jewry  depend  to  a  large  extent  for  their 
existence  upon  the  non-Zionists,  who  may  now  by  the 
force  of  reaction  be  driven  into  anti-Zionism.  But 
the  progress  of  these  institutions  just  as  largely 
depends  upon  those  who  are  Zionists.  The  with- 
drawal of  the  Zionists  from  American  Jewish  work — 
and  such  withdrawal  may  become  a  moral  duty  for 
the  Zionists  who  are  loyal  to  the  movement  and 
respect  their  convictions — might  mean  a  complete 
standstill  in  the  life  of  American  Jewry.  Perhaps 
there  are  a  few  among  us  who  are  skeptical  about  the 
fate  of  American  Judaism,  and  who  therefore  see  no 
harm  in  hastening  its  disintegration.  But  those  of  us 
who  are  profoundly  concerned  about  the  future  of 
the  two  and  one-half  million  Jews  who  are  now  in 
America,  and  of  twice  that  number  who  may  one 
day  be  here  cannot  but  view  with  the  utmost  anxiety 
the  danger  of  wrecking  what  promises  to  become 
the  greatest  Jewish  center  in  the  history  of  the  Jews 
since  their  dispersion. 

As  for  the  Zionist  movement,  one  cannot  help 
doubting  whether  Zionism,  even  if  it  succeeded  in 
defeating  its  opponents,  would  thereby  obtain  its 
object.  I  am  not  speaking  of  the  very  considerable 
material  injury  which  the  movement  will  surfer  from 
the  indifference  and  hostility  of  the  other  side.  I 
am  rather  thinking  of  the  dangers  incurred  by  Zionism 
itself  if,  having  repulsed  the  so-called  classes,  it 
becomes  a  one-sided  movement  of  the  masses.  Of 
course,  no  Zionist  can  be  otherwise  than  deeply 
gratified    by    the    prospect    of    Zionism    becoming    a 


THE  PRESENT  CRISIS  IN  AMERICAN  JEWRY    349 

cause  of  the  people,  but  unless  it  manages  to  preserve 
the  balance  of  power  within  the  Jewish  community, 
it  will  be  exposed  to  risks  from  another  source. 
Zionism  is  beset  with  so  many  difficulties  that  it  dare 
not  burden  itself  with  problems  extraneous  to  it. 
The  injection  of  political  or  economic  issues  into  the 
movement  is  fraught  with  incalculable  consequences 
for  the  future  of  the  movement  in  this  country. 
These  issues  are  so  extensive  in  their  bearings  and  so 
vital  in  their  manifestations  that  if  superimposed  on 
the  delicate  structure  of  Zionism  they  may  crush  it, 
never  to  rise  again. 

Zionism  must,  therefore,  remain  neutral.  While 
including  all  Jews,  it  dare  not  identify  itself  with  any 
section  of  them.  It  dare  not  be  either  a  movement 
of  the  classes  or  of  the  masses.  While  holding 
scrupulously  aloof  from  the  issues  which  divide 
modern  Jewry  as  part  of  modern  humanity,  it  must 
keep  its  eye  fixed  on  one  point,  the  securing  of  a 
Jewish  center  for  the  Jewish  people  as  a  whole,  in 
which  the  ills  that  afflict  humanity  may  be  cured  in 
the  prophetic  spirit  of  justice  and  righteousness. 

The  practical  conclusion  of  these  considerations  is 
clear.  It  is  a  plea  for  reconciliation,  for  a  return  to 
that  Synthesis  which  was  on  the  point  of  becoming 
the  common  ground  of  all  American  Israel.  American 
Judaism  needs  peace  to  carry  out  the  great  task  con- 
fronting it.  Zionism  is  no  less  in  need  of  peace  in 
order  to  gain  the  hearts  of  those  whose  hearts  are 
still  Jewish.  The  very  possibility  of  a  conflict  has 
bred  a  spirit  of  suspicion  and  unfriendliness  which 


350  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

falls  like  a  blight  upon  every  attempt  at  united 
action.  The  non-Zionists  may  succeed  in  defeating 
their  opponents;  they  can  never  dispense  with 
Zionism  which  is  a  driving  force  in  American  Jewish 
life.  The  victory  may  perch  on  the  banners  of  the 
Zionists  but  they  can  never  forego  the  assistance  of 
the  non-Zionists  who  still  form  the  backbone  of 
American  Jewry.  Representing  the  common  longings 
of  the  Jewish  people  throughout  the  world,  Zionism 
should  serve  as  a  leaven,  quickening  and  stimulating 
the  Jewish  activities  of  this  country,  and  rescue  them 
from  the  greatest  danger  of  Diaspora  Judaism,  the 
danger  of  provincialism,  of  falling  away  from  the 
main  body  of  universal  Israel.  In  the  particular 
situation  confronting  us  Zionism  ought  to  assert  the 
claims  of  Palestine,  in  addition  to  those  of  the  Dias- 
pora. But  the  Zionists  cannot  replace  the  present 
agencies  of  American  Jewish  life,  nor  can  they  dispense 
with  the  cooperation  of  the  non-Zionists.  Such  co- 
operation, based  on  the  synthesis  Palestine  plus 
Diaspora,  would  be  of  equal  benefit  to  both  parties. 
Zionism  and  non-Zionism  have  only  one  real  enemy: 
it  is  Assimilation,  which  preaches  the  suicide  of 
Judaism.  But  all  those  who  are  concerned  about 
the  preservation  of  Judaism,  in  whatever  shape  or  by 
whatever  means,  have  the  right  to  be  recognized,  if  not 
as  fellow- workers  in  Zion,  at  least  as  fellow- workers 
in  Israel. 

Lastly,  if  cooperation  and  harmony  between  the 
Zionists  and  the  non-Zionists  be  permanently  needed 
for  the  welfare  of  American  Judaism,  they  are  needed 


THE  PRESENT  CRISIS  IN  AMERICAN  JEWRY    351 

a  thousandfold  now  when  the  catastrophe  which  has 
overwhelmed  the  ancient  centers  of  Jewry  has  turned 
the  eyes  and  hopes  of  the  whole  Jewish  world  toward 
the  Jews  of  this  country.  Ever  since  the  Jews  of 
Russia,  fleeing  from  the  wrath  of  the  oppressor,  began 
to  wend  their  steps  toward  these  hospitable  shores, 
thoughtful  European  Jews  have  been  looking  upon 
America  as  the  future  center  of  the  Jewish  Diaspora. 
And  as  time  progressed,  as  the  numbers  and  the  ener- 
gies of  the  Old  Jewish  World  assembled  more  and 
more  in  the  New,  American  Jewry  has  been  steadily 
advancing  toward  this  exalted  position  of  Jewish 
hegemony.  But  what,  in  the  natural  course  of 
events,  might  have  been  the  fruit  of  slow  and  gradual 
ripening  has  now  been  thrust  upon  us  as  the  sudden 
result  of  the  World  War.  Crippled  European  Jewry 
is  now  looking,  and  will  look  more  and  more,  to  the 
Jewry  of  America  not  only  for  comfort  and  support, 
but  also  for  light  and  leading,  for  spiritual  advice  and 
guidance,  and  the  Jewry  of  America,  the  only  Jewry 
of  consequence  unscathed  by  the  world  struggle, 
cannot  but  assume  the  responsibility. 

Nor  is  the  Jewry  of  America  at  liberty  to  choose. 
There  is  an  ancient  Jewish  legend  which,  with  a  subtle 
touch  of  sarcasm,  tells  us  that  when  the  Lord,  having 
descended  upon  Mount  Sinai,  was  about  to  bestow  the 
Torah  upon  the  Jews,  the  latter,  shrinking  from  the 
obligations  imposed  by  it,  made  an  attempt  to  refuse 
the  proffered  gift.  Thereupon  the  Lord  lifted  the 
mountain  over  their  heads  and  angrily  exclaimed: 
"If  ye  accept  my  Law,  well  and  good.     If  not,  ye 


352  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

shall  be  crushed  on  the  spot!"  And  the  Jews,  yielding 
no  less  to  the  promptings  of  duty  than  to  the  dictates 
of  wisdom,  quickly  recanted  and  declared:  "We  will 
do  and  obey!"  American  Jewry  will  either  be  the 
leader  of  Jewry  or  it  will  not  be.  Let  it  fail  to  respond 
to  the  great  call  of  history, — and  it  will  unfailingly 
relapse  into  the  obscurity  and  sluggishness  of  its 
former  parochialism.  This  great  world  crisis  will  be 
either  the  making  or  the  unmaking  of  American 
Jewry,  and  no  Jew  whose  mind  is  unclouded  by  the 
ephemeral  passions  of  party  strife  can  do  aught 
except  ardently  pray  that  the  Jews  of  America  may 
emerge  in  triumph  from  their  supreme  test. 


XIX 

THE    AMERICANIZATION    OF    THE    JEWISH 
IMMIGRANT* 

JEWISH  immigration  into  the  United  States  has 
for  more  than  a  generation  proceeded  in  the  main 
from  the  lands  of  Eastern  Europe  which  in  the  course 
of  the  great  world  war  have  served  as  the  battle- 
ground between  Teuton  and  Slav.  Competent  ob- 
servers of  European  conditions  are  strongly  of  the 
opinion  that  Jewish  immigration  from  the  same  ter- 
ritories will  at  the  close  of  the  war  assume  even  larger 
proportions  than  prior  to  it.  Crippled  by  the 
terrible  ravages  of  warfare  and  famine,  of  both  of 
which  they  have  borne  more  than  their  share,  caught 
as  in  a  vise  between  the  conflicting  aspirations  of 
Russia,  Germany  and  Poland,  the  Jews  of  Eastern 
Europe  will,  in  the  judgment  of  these  observers,  turn 
their  hopes  to  these  shores  where  they  may  be  assured 
of  a  free  human  existence  as  part  of  the  American 
commonwealth . 

Be  this  as  it  may,  at  this  serious  hour  in  the  history 
of  our  country,  when  America  is  engaged  in  the 
process  of  self-determination  and  is  taking  stock  of  the 

*  Published  in  the  Survey,  on  May  5,  1917.  The  article  is 
based  on  a  memorandum  submitted  by  the  writer  to  his  col- 
leagues on  the  board  of  a  leading  Jewish  institution  engaged  in 
Americanization  work. 


354  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

human  and  material  resources  at  its  disposal,  the 
question  of  the  adaptation  of  the  immigrant  popula- 
tion to  the  American  environment  calls  for  calm  and 
careful  consideration.  And  the  Americanization  of 
the  Jewish  immigrant  forms  by  no  means  the  least 
important  phase  of  this  great  problem. 

In  discussing  the  question  of  the  Jewish  immigrant 
in  relation  to  the  American  environment,  I  propose  to 
dissociate  it  entirely  from  the  general  question  of 
Judaism,  about  which  there  exists  an  infinite  variety 
of  opinion  and  emotion,  no  less  among  Jews  than 
among  non-Jews.  Laying  aside  all  personal  convic- 
tions and  associations  on  the  subject  of  Judaism,  I 
shall  endeavor  to  view  the  problem  before  us  from  a 
position  which  is  far  removed  from  the  battlefield  of 
controversy:  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  humani- 
tarian, who  is  interested  in  the  Jews,  not  on  account 
of  his  racial  or  religious  kinship  with  them,  but  as  a 
section  of  humanity  to  which  he  is  bound  by  no 
other  tie  except  that  of  a  common  mankind. 

It  would  lead  me  too  far  afield  to  enter  into  a  dis- 
cussion of  the  immigrant  problem  at  large.  It  will 
suffice  for  our  purpose  if  we  start  from  the  premise 
which  will  be  granted  by  all:  that  the  solution  of  the 
immigrant  problem  consists  in  making  the  immigrant 
cease  to  be  an  immigrant,  i.  e.,  in  common  parlance, 
in  making  the  immigrant,  who  is  a  stranger  in  our 
gates,  feel  at  home,  and  in  transforming  him  into  a 
happy  and  useful  member  of  the  new  environment. 
As  applied  to  the  immigrant  problem  in  this  country, 
it  means  the  Americanization  of  the  immigrant,  in 
the  best  and  loftiest  connotation  of  this  term. 


AMERICANIZATION  OF  JEWISH  IMMIGRANT    355 

The  solution  of  this  problem  is  a  twofold  one.  On 
the  one  hand,  it  is  of  an  external  nature.  We  must 
endeavor  to  acquaint  the  newly  arrived  immigrant 
with  the  conditions  of  the  new  land  and  to  enable 
him  to  fight  successfully  in  the  struggle  for  existence, 
so  that  he  may  obtain  and  assume  his  rightful  share 
in  the  benefits  and  responsibilities  of  the  country 
which  he  has  chosen  for  his  abode. 

The  second  solution  of  the  problem  is  of  an  internal, 
or  spiritual,  character.  Perhaps  it  may  be  best 
formulated  as  the  attempt  to  restore  the  equilibrium 
of  the  immigrant.  Equilibrium  has  been  defined  as 
"a  condition  of  equal  balance  between  opposite  or 
counteracting  forces."  In  the  life  of  the  body  the 
most  important  sense,  without  which  animal  life  is 
practically  impossible,  is  the  sense  of  equilibrium, 
that  sense,  as  has  well  been  said,  "by  which  we  have  a 
feeling  of  security  in  standing,  walking,  and,  indeed, 
in  all  the  movements  by  which  the  body  is  carried 
through  space."  In  spiritual  life  the  equilibrium  of 
man,  with  the  possible  exception  of  a  few  geniuses,  is 
the  product  of  the  social  forces  of  his  environment. 
As  long  as  man  remains  within  his  natural  surround- 
ings, he  is  endowed  with  this  sense  of  equilibrium — 
whether  we  call  it  habit,  tradition,  or  association — 
which  gives  him  the  feeling  of  security  in  all  functions 
of  life.  For  the  environment  dictates  to  him  his 
form  of  speech,  shapes  his  thoughts,  colors  his  senti- 
ments, determines  his  manners  and  customs.  In 
the  case  of  the  immigrant,  i.  e.,  of  the  man  who  has 
been  detached  from  his  accustomed  environment,  this 
equilibrium    is    disturbed.     He    is    deprived    of    the 


356  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

constant,  though  unconscious,  guidance  of  his  social 
group,  and  the  result  is  the  same  as  in  the  life  of  the 
body  when  the  sense  of  equilibrium  is  impaired:  he 
loses  his  feeling  of  security;  he  reels;  he  is  swayed  to 
and  fro  by  the  slightest  touch  of  the  new  environment; 
he  becomes  unnatural  and  unhappy.  Unless  he 
be  a  man  of  exceptional  ability,  the  most  valuable  in 
him,  his  personality,  the  outcome  of  long  years  of 
breeding  and  training,  is  destroyed,  and  he  is  in 
danger  of  becoming  a  moral  wreck,  a  menace  to 
himself  and  a  menace  to  his  neighbors. 

The  solution  of  the  problem,  therefore,  must  consist 
in  the  restoration  of  his  equilibrium,  in  the  recreation 
of  a  social  environment  for  him,  which,  among  the 
puzzling  conditions  of  the  new  land,  would  offer  him 
that  spiritual  anchorage  which  his  former  environment 
had  provided  for  him;  in  making  him  again  the  unit 
of  a  social  group,  the  mandates  of  which  he  could  obey, 
and  in  enabling  him  to  regain  the  sense  of  security 
which  had  formerly  guided  him  in  all  the  functions 
of  life. 

The  Jewish  immigrant  problem  in  its  internal  or 
spiritual  aspect — its  external  phase,  which  is  a  matter 
of  common  agreement,  may  well  be  left  out  of  con- 
sideration— is  essentially  the  same,  except  that  it  is 
greatly  aggravated  and  complicated  by  the  peculiar 
conditions  of  the  environment  from  which  the  Jewish 
immigrant  comes.  For  it  is  obvious  that  the  greater 
the  divergence  between  the  old  and  the  new  environ- 
ment of  the  immigrant,  the  greater  must  be  the 
disturbance  of  his  equilibrium.  The  English-speaking 
immigrant,  the  Scandinavian,  or  the  German,  whose 


AMERICANIZATION  OF  JEWISH  IMMIGRANT    357 

former  environment  is  culturally  similar  to  our  own, 
find  it  comparatively  easy  to  adapt  themselves  to  the 
new  conditions  in  this  country.  The  Italian,  the 
Slav,  the  Syrian,  find  this  adaptation  increasingly 
difficult. 

Now  it  may  be  asserted,  without  fear  of  contradic- 
tion, that  in  no  case  is  the  contrast  between  the  old 
and  the  new  wider  and  deeper  than  in  the  case  of  the 
immigrant  Jew.  For  the  Jewish  immigrants,  who  in 
their  overwhelming  majority  hail  from  the  lands  of 
ancient  Poland,  from  western  Russia,  Galicia  and 
partly  from  Roumania,  come  not  only  from  countries 
whose  general  civilizations  are  vastly  different  from 
that  of  our  own  land;  but  they  come,  in  addition, 
from  a  purely  Jewish  environment,  which  in  itself  is 
radically  different  from  the  non-Jewish  environment 
of  the  country  in  the  midst  of  which  it  is  situated. 
In  most  of  the  towns  from  which  the  Jewish  immigrant 
hails  the  Jews  form  the  bulk  of  the  population  and  live 
entirely  apart  from  the  non-Jews.  There  are  locali- 
ties— some  of  them  the  writer  remembers  from  his 
early  associations — in  which  the  only  non-Jewish 
resident  is  the  Shabbes  goy  (the  gentile  who  assists 
the  Jews  in  their  domestic  arrangements  on  the 
Sabbath  day),  and  in  which  the  approach  of  the 
Sabbath  is  still  heralded  on  the  market  place  by  the 
Jewish  beadle. 

It  is  absolutely  essential  for  us  to  realize  the  full 
character  of  this  Jewish  Ghetto  environment  if  we 
may  ever  hope  to  solve,  or  even  to  mitigate,  the 
difficulties  confronting  the  Jewish  immigrant.  It  is 
generally    known    and    taken    for    granted    that    the 


358  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

sum  and  substance  of  Jewish  life  in  the  former  environ- 
ment of  the  immigrant  Jew  is  the  Jewish  religion. 
To  a  large  extent  this  is  correct,  but  it  is  necessary 
to  bear  in  mind  that  religion,  as  conceived  by  Judaism 
and  as  carried  to  its  extreme  consequences  in  the 
development  of  Polish  Judaism,  is  infinitely  more  than 
what  is  associated  with  it  in  the  modern  world. 
Religion  from  this  point  of  view  is  co-extensive  with 
that  which  in  modern  parlance  goes  by  the  name  of 
social  and  cultural  life.  Judaism,  in  this  formulation, 
regulates  practically  all  the  functions  of  life,  even 
those  which  the  Christian  would  never  think  of  asso- 
ciating with  religion,  such  as  food  and  drink,  as  well 
as  the  manners  and  customs  of  every-day  life.  As  a 
result  of  this  development,  the  immigrant  Jew 
possesses  his  own  language,  or  rather  languages.  For, 
while  using  Yiddish  as  a  vernacular,  he  employs 
Hebrew  not  merely  as  the  language  of  prayer  and 
study,  but  also,  to  a  very  considerable  extent,  as  a 
medium  of  literature  and  correspondence.  Both 
languages  (Yiddish  to  a  lesser  degree  than  Hebrew) 
are  regarded  by  him  as  part  of  his  religious  tradition. 
He  wears  in  his  homeland  his  own  form  of  dress,  which 
is  no  less  hallowed  by  religious  associations. 

In  a  word,  religious  tradition  dominates  the  entire 
range  of  his  social  life,  which  is  thus,  except  for  the 
external  points  of  intersection  with  the  economic  and 
political  factors  of  the  outside  world,  wholly  and 
exclusively  Jewish. 

This  all-embracing  influence  of  the  Jewish  religion 
is  even  more  marked  in  the  domain  of  his  educational 
activities.     For   in   a   country   in   which   compulsory 


AMERICANIZATION  OF  JEWISH  IMMIGRANT    359 

education  is  unknown  and  in  which  the  striving  of 
the  Jew  for  general  culture  is  cruelly  hampered, 
Jewish  education  is  limited,  almost  by  force,  to  the 
study  of  Judaism,  as  represented  by  the  Bible,  and 
still  more  so  by  the  Talmud  and  post-Talmudic 
literature.  The  extraordinary  love  of  learning  which, 
inculcated  by  Jewish  religious  tradition,  is  character- 
istic of  Eastern  European  Jews  to  a  truly  astonishing 
degree,  and  the  one-sided  limitation  of  these  intellec- 
tual endeavors  to  the  literary  sources  of  Judaism,  have 
resulted  in  the  evolution  of  a  peculiar  Jewish  men- 
tality and,  if  I  may  use  the  expression,  of  a  peculiar 
Jewish  sentimentality,  which  marks  off  this  type  of 
Jew  from  his  Christian  fellow-citizens  as  well  as  from 
his  co-religionists  in  other  lands. 

True,  in  recent  times  a  large  number  of  Jews  in 
Eastern  Eurpoe  have  drifted  away  from  the  religious 
moorings  of  Judaism  and  have  become  indifferent 
and  even  hostile  to  religion.  But  it  would  be  a 
serious  mistake  to  regard  this  estrangement  from  the 
Jewish  religion  in  the  light  of  the  West-European 
or  American  tendency  of  Jewish  assimilation.  These 
radicals  or  freethinkers  are  in  most  cases  just  as 
keenly  interested  in  the  preservation  of  Jewish  dis- 
tinctiveness as  are  the  old-fashioned  orthodox  Jews, 
except  that  what  the  latter  regard  as  a  mandate  of  the 
Jewish  religion  the  former  justify  by  the  authority 
of  Jewish  nationalism. 

This  Jewish  isolation  which,  as  has  been  pointed 
out  above,  covers  the  whole  domain  of  life,  has  un- 
doubtedly bred  grave  defects  which  considerably  mar 
the  complexion  of  the  immigrant  Jew,  such  as  pettiness, 


360  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

suspiciousness,  hyper-sensitiveness  and  hyper-clever- 
ness, excessive  individualism,  lack  of  organizing 
ability,  disregard  of  externalities,  often  resulting  in 
uncouthness  and  uncleanliness,  and  other  short- 
comings of  this  kind.  But  it  has  at  the  same  time 
been  productive  of  positive  characteristics,  which 
to  the  outsider  are  perhaps  less  palpable,  because, 
unlike  the  others,  they  do  not  lie  on  the  surface,  yet 
are  of  immense  intrinsic  value  and  far  more  than  make 
up  for  his  defects :  his  extraordinary  mental  vigor,  his 
unconquerable  thirst  for  knowledge,  his  boundless 
respect  for  learning,  his  passionate  love  of  liberty,  his 
profound  sense  of  justice,  his  power  to  endure  suffer- 
ing, his  frugality,  his  genuine  warm-heartedness,  and 
a  variety  of  other  virtues  which  are  best  evidenced  by 
the  fact  that  his  enemies  openly  justify  their  cruelty 
by  his  enormous  superiority  over  the  native  popula- 
tion, a  superiority  which  he  has  been  able  to  maintain 
in  the  face  of  inconceivable  misery  and  persecution. 
It  may  now  be  realized  in  what  a  terrible  conflict 
the  Jewish  immigrant  must  find  himself  when,  having 
left  his  Ghetto  environment,  he  suddenly  emerges  on 
the  shores  of  the  New  World.  Not  only  are  the 
external  conditions  of  life  in  this  country  diametrically 
different  from  those  he  had  left  behind,  but  the  inner 
forces  of  life,  the  social  and  cultural  influences,  are  no 
less  conflicting.  For  the  ideals  which  underlay  the 
whole  social  stratification  in  his  old  environment  were 
primarily  of  a  Jewish  character:  Jewish  learning  and 
Jewish  piety,  i.  e.,  knowledge  of  the  Jewish  religion 
and  the  observance  of  its  practices.  These  qualifica- 
tions, far  more  than  wealth,  determined  the  position 


AMERICANIZATION  OF  JEWISH  IMMIGRANT    361 

of  the  Jew  in  his  social  group  and  provided  the  in- 
centive for  his  rise  and  progress. 

On  arriving  in  this  country,  the  immigrant  dis- 
covers that  they  are  not  only  valueless,  but  that  they 
are  a  hindrance,  and  sometimes  a  nuisance,  in  the 
eyes  of  his  fellow-men.  We  are  horrified  by  the  sight 
of  physical  cripples.  But  were  it  given  to  us,  by 
some  kind  of  spiritual  X-rays,  to  perceive  the  fractures 
in  the  souls  of  men,  we  would  be  a  thousand  times 
more  horrified  by  the  sight  of  the  untold  numbers  of 
mangled  human  souls  which  are  writhing  in  inex- 
pressible suffering  in  the  midst  of  our  Jewish  immi- 
grant population.  No  one  except  he  who  has  an 
intimate  knowledge  of  the  conditions  of  old-fashioned 
Jewish  life  in  the  Ghetto  can  adequately  appreciate 
the  excruciating  mental  agony  which  the  immigrant 
Jew  must  experience  when,  for  instance,  for  the 
first  time  in  his  life  he  is  forced  to  violate  the  God- 
given  command  of  abstaining  from  work  on  the 
Sabbath  day,  or  to  transgress  any  of  the  Jewish  regu- 
lations concerning  food,  which  in  his  eyes  are  clothed 
with  the  authority  of  the  Divine  will.  Nor  can  the 
outsider  fully  realize  the  inexpressibly  tragic  gap  which 
opens  up  in  the  soul  of  the  immigrant  when  he  dis- 
covers that  what  he  has  held  sacred  and  dear  in  the 
past  is  valueless,  and  less  than  valueless,  in  the  eyes 
of  his  new  neighbors.  The  result  of  this  conflict  is  in 
innumerable  cases  a  complete  loss  of  equilibrium  and 
the  destruct'on  of  that  feeling  of  moral  and  mental 
security  without  which  a  man  is  degraded  into  a 
beast,  and  life  becomes  a  meaningless  and  brutal 
discharge  of  mere  physical  functions. 


362  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

This  change  of  environment  has  also  another 
aspect  which  is  more  specific  but  which  deserves  men- 
tion in  this  connection  because  it  is  a  prominent 
feature  of  the  activities  of  the  Americanizing  agencies 
in  this  country.  I  refer  to  the  social  life  of  the  immi- 
grant in  the  narrower  sense  of  that  term.  In  the 
Ghetto,  with  all  its  economic  misery,  ample  provision 
was  made  for  the  recreational  phase  of  life.  Social 
life,  in  the  sense  of  sociability,  strange  though  it  may 
sound,  was  perhaps  nowhere  so  fully  developed  as  in 
the  Ghetto.  The  Beth  Hamidrash,  "the  House  of 
Study,"  and,  in  the  provinces  in  which  the  sect  of 
Hassidim  ("Fietists")  prevail,  the  Klaus,  or  "Meet- 
ing House,"  formed  the  social  center  of  the  community, 
where  the  Jews  met  day  in  and  day  out  not  only  for 
mental  recreation,  by  studying  jointly  the  sources  of 
Judaism,  but  also  for  social  entertainment,  in  the  form 
of  friendly  chats,  and  very  frequently  of  common 
meals,  generally  accompanied  by  singing  and  even 
dancing.  The  Jews  of  the  Ghetto  lived  up,  in  very 
truth,  to  the  biblical  adage  that  "man  doth  not  live 
by  bread  alone  but  by  what  proceedeth  from  the 
mouth  of  the  Lord."  For  while  they  often  lacked 
bread,  they  found  supreme  comfort  and  happiness  in 
the  study  and  contemplation  of  the  word  of  God.  As 
one  who  has  had  occasion  to  observe  at  close  range 
the  social  and  recreational  aspects  of  Jewish  life,  not 
only  in  the  heart  of  the  Russian-Jewish  Ghetto  but 
also  in  the  leading  Jewish  communities  of  western 
Europe  and  America,  I  make  bold  to  assert  that 
modern  Judaism,  with  all  its  wealth  and  splendor,  has 
nowhere  been  able  to  produce  even  the  shadow  of  a 


AMERICANIZATION  OF  JEWISH  IMMIGRANT    363 

substitute  for  that  invigorating  and  ennobling  joy- 
ousness  which  the  immigrant  Jew  found  provided  for 
him  in  the  Shi'ur  (Talmud  course)  given  at  the  Beth 
Hamidrash  or  in  the  Shalosh  Se'udoth  (the  Sabbath 
afternoon  meal,  mostly  consisting  of  bread  and 
herring)  arranged  in  the  Hassidic  "Meeting  House." 

On  arriving  in  this  country  the  Jewish  immigrant 
finds  himself  deprived  of  all  these  social  stimuli.  He 
may  still  cling  to  the  outward  forms  of  Judaism,  if  he 
can.  But  the  spirit  which  gave  them  life  and  meaning 
has  gone.  Judaism  had  been  to  him  like  a  beautiful 
painting,  delighting  his  soul  by  the  warmth  of  its 
colors  and  the  loftiness  of  its  composition.  Now  he 
discovers  that  the  colors  are  rapidly  fading,  and  that 
all  that  is  left  to  him  is  nothing  but  a  crude  and 
colorless  canvas,  without  beauty,  without  meaning, 
and  without  comfort. 

This  change  of  environment  would  perhaps  not  be 
so  painful  to  the  immigrant  if,  on  arriving  in  the  new 
land,  he  were  to  find  a  uniform  and  firmly  settled 
culture,  to  which,  with  some  effort  on  his  part,  he 
might  become  assimilated.  This,  however,  is  not  the 
case.  Life  in  the  large  American  cities,  and  particu- 
larly life  in  New  York,  is  neither  uniform  nor  definitely 
settled.  The  immigrant  cannot  help  being  utterly 
confused  by  the  disharmony  and  instability  of  the  new 
environment.  It  is  a  matter  of  common  knowledge 
that,  when  coming  in  contact  with  a  new  culture,  men 
are  invariably  apt  to  notice  and  to  imitate  that  which 
is  superficial  and  therefore  least  valuable  in  it.  This 
fact  is  well  known  to  every  student  of  the  history 
of  human  civilization.     One  need  only  think  of  the 


364  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

effect  of  French  culture  on  the  native  masses  of  the 
Levant  or  of  English  culture  on  the  inhabitants  of 
India.  In  the  interior  of  British  South  Africa  one 
may  come  across  natives  in  a  state  of  complete  naked- 
ness, except  for  a  silk  hat  and  a  colored  waistcoat, 
which  they  evidently  regard  as  the  sum  and  sub- 
stance of  English  civilization.  The  immigrant  Jew, 
with  all  his  mental  agility,  and  with  all  his  traditions 
of  an  ancient  culture,  can  only  see  the  superficialities 
of  American  life,  and,  not  being  steadied  by  the 
equilibrium  of  his  own  heritage,  he  seizes  upon  them 
as  the  true  manifestations  of  the  new  environment. 

While  he  does  not,  and  indeed  cannot,  perceive  the 
great  ideals  underlying  the  American  commonwealth, 
he  quickly  enough  notices  those  negative,  though 
accidental,  features  which  lie  on  the  surface  of  Ameri- 
can life:  the  hunt  after  the  dollar;  the  corrupt  state 
of  politics;  the  hankering  after  publicity;  the  drift 
towards  materialism;  and  he  is  forced  to  the  dangerous 
and  cynical  conclusion  that  America — and  here  I 
merely  repeat  what  one  may  frequently  hear  from 
the  lips  of  Jewish  immigrants — is  the  land  of  bluff; 
that  religion,  morality,  politics,  and  learning  are  a 
sham;  and  that  the  only  thing  of  value  and  power 
in  this  country  is  almighty  mammon. 

The  result  is  obvious.  The  immigrants  with  a 
nobler  fibre,  in  whom  the  traditions  of  the  old  environ- 
ment are  firmly  rooted,  are  bitterly  disappointed. 
They  turn  away  in  disgust  from  the  new  environment, 
which  is  utterly  misconceived  by  them,  and — here 
again  I  refer  to  a  phrase  current  among  this  type  of 
Jewish    immigrant — they   deprecate   the    memory   of 


AMERICANIZATION  OF  JEWISH  IMMIGRANT    365 

Columbus  for  having  discovered  America,  where  their 
hopes  for  a  happier  and  loftier  existence  have  been 
cruelly  deceived.  Thousands  of  these  immigrants 
would  be  happy  to  return  to  their  native  lands  if  exter- 
nal conditions  permitted  them  to  do  so. 

The  others,  however, — those  who  are  of  a  cheaper 
mental  grade — are  quickly  reconciled  to  the  new 
state  of  things  and,  throwing  off  the  former  restraints 
of  Judaism,  are  ready  to  play  the  game.  They 
enter  fully  into  what  they  believe  to  represent  Ameri- 
can life,  and  bring  to  bear  upon  it  their  innate  clever- 
ness and  resourcefulness. 

What  then  is  the  remedy  for  the  evils  attending 
this  radical  change  of  environment  on  the  part  of  the 
Jewish  immigrant — evils  which,  if  not  checked  in 
time,  may  give  rise  to  serious  and  complicated  prob- 
lems? To  my  mind,  there  is  only  one  remedy: 
the  restoration  of  the  equilibrium  of  the  Jewish  immi- 
grant. It  goes  without  saying  that  we  must  ac- 
quaint the  immigrant  with  the  conditions  of  the  new 
land,  not  only  to  strengthen  him  in  his  struggle  for 
existence  but  also  to  enable  him  to  realize  the  true 
foundations  of  American  life  and  American  culture. 
But  it  is  just  as  important,  if  not  more  important, 
because  more  promising  of  results,  that  we  make  him 
again  a  social  unit,  that  we  recreate  his  natural 
environment  for  him. 

Were  it  possible  to  make  the  Jewish  immigrant  a 
completely  new  man  by  uprooting  all  his  previous 
traditions  and  habits,  and  by  turning  him  into  a  full- 
fledged  member  of  the  American  environment,  one 
might  feel  inclined,  looking  at  the  problem  from  the 


366  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

purely  humanitarian  point  of  view,  to  recommend 
the  process  of  uncompromising  Americanization — 
although  even  in  this  case,  again  from  the  humani- 
tarian point  of  view,  one  would  greatly  regret  the 
tremendous  waste  of  mental  and  moral  energy  which 
this  hot-house  transformation  is  bound  to  entail,  to 
the  detriment  of  this  country,  which  depends  for  its 
progress  on  the  best  that  its  citizens  can  contribute 
to  it.  But  the  Jewish  immigrant,  like  all  other 
human  beings,  cannot  be  made  a  new  man.  The 
human  soul  is  not  a  tabula  rasa.  The  impress  of 
centuries  is  indelibly  stamped  upon  it,  and  no  me- 
chanical process  can  undo  the  organic  development  of 
many  generations. 

Hence  the  only  solution  left  to  us  is  to  reconstruct, 
or  rather  to  help  the  Jewish  immigrant  to  recon- 
struct, his  old  environment,  to  reawaken  and  reinforce 
the  social  influences  of  his  former  surroundings,  so 
that  they  may  once  again  provide  him  with  guidance 
and  inspiration,  that  he  may  once  more  possess  himself 
of  the  sense  of  equilibrium,  of  that  feeling  of  security 
which  makes  a  man  a  normal  being  and  his  life  a 
normal  process. 

It  may  be  argued  against  this  view  of  the  problem 
that  the  remedy  proposed  in  the  foregoing  might 
interfere  with  the  Americanization  of  the  immigrant, 
which,  as  Americans,  we  must  all  have  at  heart.  But 
such  an  argument  is  fallacious.  The  influences  in  this 
country  making  for  Americanization  are  so  extensive 
and  so  powerful  that,  whatever  procedure  we  may 
choose  to  adopt,  the  Americanization  of  the  immigrant 
can  only  be  retarded ;  it  certainly  cannot  be  checked. 


AMERICANIZATION  OF  JEWISH  IMMIGRANT    367 

But  even  if  this  handicap  in  the  process  of  American- 
ization were  real,  it  would  be  infinitely  less  harmful 
than  the  dangers  lurking  behind  a  de-Judaized  and 
superficially  Americanized  Jewish  immigrant  popu- 
lation. The  writer  for  one,  and  here  again  he  is 
speaking  purely  as  a  humanitarian,  prefers  the  kaftan- 
clad  old-fashioned  Jew,  with  his  unattractive  appear- 
ance and  ungainly  manners,  whose  whole  life  is 
dominated  by  the  ideals  and  mandates  of  an  ancient 
religion  and  civilization,  whose  mind  has  been  culti- 
vated by  the  subtleties  of  the  Talmud  and  whose 
conduct  is  regulated  by  the  restraints  of  the  Shulhan 
Arukh,  to  that  modernized  amphibious  creature,  the 
gaudily  attired,  slang-using,  gum-chewing,  movie- 
visiting,  dollar-hunting,  vulgar  and  uncultured,  quasi- 
Americanized  "dzentleman." 

It  is  obvious,  therefore,  that  our  method  of  Ameri- 
canization— an  Americanization  which  is  constructive 
and  not  destructive — must  consist  in  restoring  the 
impaired  or  destroyed  equilibrium  of  the  immigrant 
Jew  by  enabling  him  to  recreate  for  himself  his  former 
environment.  It  is  not  enough  that  we  tolerate  his 
old  Jewish  associations;  we  must  call  them  forth  where 
they  are  dormant  and  strengthen  them  where  they 
have  become  weakened.  Of  course,  we  do  not  wish 
to  reproduce  the  old  Jewish  Ghetto  in  the  new  land. 
Nor  does  the  Jewish  immigrant  desire  it.  The  immi- 
grant who  flees  to  this  country  as  a  haven  of  refuge 
and  is  anxious  to  throw  in  his  own  lot  and  that  of  his 
children  with  the  new  land  is  fully  alive  to  the  obli- 
gations imposed  upon  him  by  American  life  and  citizen- 
ship.    Those  who  are  intimately  acquainted  with  the 


368  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

life  of  the  immigrant  in  his  old  and  new  home,  and 
do  not  base  their  judgment  on  ignorance  and  super- 
ficial observation,  are  frequently  amazed  at  the  readi- 
ness with  which  the  immigrant  Jews  make  conces- 
sions to  the  American  environment.  With  few  ex- 
ceptions, even  the  most  conservative  and  most  back- 
ward among  them  are  happy  and  proud  to  entrust 
their  children  to  the  American  public  school,  although 
in  their  old  country  they  had  shunned  the  secular 
school  as  a  de-Judaizing  agency.  They  have  scarcely 
touched  these  shores  when  they  throw  off  their 
ancient  costume  which  in  Eastern  Europe  is  the 
peculiar  mark  of  their  race  and  is  hallowed  by  the 
tradition  of  centuries.  They  are  eager,  perhaps 
more  so  than  other  immigrants,  to  acquire  the  English 
language,  and  though  they  themselves  may  fail  in 
these  endeavors,  they  watch  with  delight  the  linguistic 
progress  of  their  children. 

In  a  word,  the  immigrant  Jew  does  not  object  to 
the  modifications  of  his  old  mode  of  life  which  are 
necessary  to  harmonize  it  with  American  conditions. 
But  he  insists,  as  he  has  a  right  to  insist,  that  these 
modifications  do  not  encroach  on  the  essential  char- 
acter of  his  religious  tradition.  We  must  then  adapt 
the  immigrant  Jew  to  the  new  environment,  but  we 
must  do  so  cautiously,  gently  and  sympathetically, 
ever  alive  to  the  dangers  of  a  rapid  and  artificial 
Americanization  which  may  destroy  old  values  with- 
out building  up  new  values  in  their  stead. 

And  it  is  just  as  obvious  that  those  entrusted  with 
the  task  of  Americanizing  the  Jewish  immigrant 
must  be  men  and  women  who  know  and  understand 
him.     It  would   seem  preposterous   that  we  should 


AMERICANIZATION  OF  JEWISH  IMMIGRANT    369 

have  to  insist  on  such  a  truism  were  it  not  for  the 
fact  that  in  the  practical  execution  of  the  work  of 
Americanization  this  simple  demand  is  so  frequently 
disregarded.  A  person  who  would  set  out  to  cure 
the  bodily  ills  of  his  fellow-men  without  an  adequate 
knowledge  of  the  structure  of  the  human  body  would 
be  scorned  as  a  quack.  But  where  human  souls  are 
concerned,  it  would  almost  seem  as  if  ignorance  were 
bliss.  Constructive  Americanization  must  be  based 
upon  knowledge.  Only  an  intimate  acquaintance 
with  the  life  of  the  Jewish  immigrant  in  his  old  and 
in  his  new  environment,  only  a  full  understanding 
of  his  mentality  and  psychology,  and  an  adequate 
appreciation  of  his  traditions  and  associations,  may 
succeed  in  bridging  the  terrible  chasm  between  his 
past  and  present,  in  creating  a  proper  outlet  for  the 
immense  stores  of  energy  that  lie  dormant  in  him,  and 
thereby  transforming  him  into  a  happy  and  valuable 
citizen  of  our  great  republic. 

The  humanitarian  method  of  dealing  with  the 
problem  of  the  Jewish  immigrant  may  perhaps  be 
best  illustrated  by  a  striking  utterance  of  the  late 
Yiddish  writer,  Sholom-Aleichem,  a  subtle  observer 
and  powerful  portrayer  of  Jewish  immigrant  life. 
Addressing  himself  to  those  who  are  engaged  in 
Americanizing  the  Jewish  immigrant,  he  reminded 
them  of  the  fact  that  the  biblical  injunction  commands 
us  to  love  the  stranger.  To  pity  him  is  not  enough. 
Pity  may  suffice  in  the  case  of  animals;  it  cannot 
satisfy  the  needs  of  human  fellowship.  It  is  only  by 
loving  the  stranger  that  we  may  ever  hope  to  solve 
the  delicate  task  of  transforming  his  soul  without 
destroying  it. 


XX 

DUBNOW'S  THEORY  OF  JEWISH 
NATIONALISM* 

THE  purpose  of  this  lecture  is  to  invite  you  to 
think  with  me  for  a  little  while  about  one  of  the 
most  important  problems  of  Judaism  and  to  examine 
the  different  ways  in  which  the  solution  of  this 
problem  has  been  attempted.  To  divert  you  from 
practical  work,  and  take  up  your  time  with  abstract 
speculations,  may  seem  inopportune  in  a  country 
like  ours  where  time  is  money,  and  money  is  the 
standard  by  which  time  is  valued- — doubly  inoppor- 
tune with  a  society  like  yours,  which  is  "endeavoring" 
in  the  cause  of  Judaism,  and  may  possibly  object  to 
let  its  healthy  hue  of  resolution  be  sicklied  o'er  with 
the  pale  cast  of  thought.  It  is  true,  the  strong  incli- 
nation towards  theorizing  and  philosophizing  which 
is  characteristic  of  the  old  type  of  Jew  has  frequently 
hampered  the  active  life  of  our  people.  But  the  lack 
of  theory  peculiar  to  the  modern  Jew  has  certainly 
had  far  more  disastrous  results.  It  is  due  primarily 
to  this  want  of  a  sound  theoretic  basis  that  our 
activity  is  without  plan  and  policy,  that  our  develop- 
ment lacks  steadiness  and  system,  that  our  enthusiasm 
consumes  itself  like  a  straw  fire,  and  that  our  energy 

*  Address  delivered  before  the  Jewish  Endeavor  Society 
in  New  York,  May  7,  1905.  Published  in  the  Maccabean,  vol. 
VIII,  p.  243  et  seq. 


372  PAST  AND  PRESENT 


is  wasted  in  single,  disconnected  actions,  born  of  the 
moment  and  lasting  for  the  moment.  The  Jewry 
of  today  is  like  a  ship  without  a  rudder,  whose  course 
is  determined  not  by  her  guiding  forces  from  within, 
but  by  the  whims  of  the  weather  from  without. 
Winds  and  waves  toss  her  whithersoever  they  like  and 
a  momentary  calm  is  apt  to  stop  her  motion  altogether. 
To  be  sure,  the  passengers  cannot  be  expected  to 
concern  themselves  with  the  course  of  the  ship. 
But  the  officers,  who  have  the  management  of  the 
vessel  in  hand,  are  in  duty  bound  to  be  clear  about 
her  course  and  to  pursue  it.  Let  the  mass  of  the 
people  satisfy  its  desire  for  activity  in  noisy  little 
doings  which  bear  no  fruit.  You,  the  intelligent 
representatives  of  the  people,  have  to  seek  the  unifying 
idea  behind  the  variegated  multitude  of  single  actions. 
Let  us  therefore  leave  for  a  moment  the  valley  with 
its  embarrassing,  often  meaningless,  details,  and 
ascend  the  lofty  height,  which  will  grant  us  an  outlook 
over  the  whole.  Having  surveyed  and  ascertained 
our  position,  we  shall  descend  and  resume  our  prac- 
tical work  with  greater  enthusiasm,  but  also  with 
greater  steadiness  and  therefore  with  greater  success. 

I  said  before  that  the  problem  we  have  to  consider 
to  night  is  one  of  the  most  important  Jewish  problems. 
To  be  more  exact  I  should  have  said  that  it  is  tlie 
Jewish  problem,  all  the  other  innumerable  problems 
of  Judaism  being  merely  a  direct  or  an  indirect  conse- 
quence from  it.  It  is  the  problem  which  touches  the 
very  root  of  our  national  existence,  the  problem — 
to  put  it  in  the  words  of  an  ancient  Judaeophobe — 
of  "a  nation  dispersed  and  divided,"  or — to  express 


DUBNOW'S  THEORY  OF  JEWISH  NATIONALISM  373 

it  in  the  words  of  a  modern  Judaeophile- — the  problem 
of  "Israel  among  the  Nations."  The  existence  of 
the  Jews  in  the  Golus,  in  the  Dispersion,  scattered 
all  over  the  countries  of  the  globe,  and  having  no 
country  of  their  own,  settled  among  all  the  nations 
of  the  earth  and  at  the  same  time  forming  a  nation  of 
their  own,  has  evei  been  a  mystery  which  has  puzzled 
and  terrified  the  whole  world.  Upon  the  non-Jews 
this  nation  without  a  land  made  the  chilling  impression 
of  a  spirit  without  a  body,  and  this  ghastly  terror 
found  its  expression  in  the  uncanny  legend  of  the 
"Wandering  Jew,"  who  owes  his  existence  to  a  curse, 
who  longs  for  death  but  is  unable  to  attain  it. 

The  non-Jews,  however,  soon  became  accustomed 
to  the  sight  of  this  spirit,  and  began  to  banish  it  by 
means  which  were  very  far  from  spiritual.  But  how 
did  the  Jews  themselves  look  upon  their  existence 
in  the  Golus,  which  to  them  was  not  merely  an 
abstract  problem  but  a  source  of  incessant  and  in- 
describable suffering?  For  the  Jews  the  doctrine  of 
Judaism  had  a  solution  in  readiness  almost  simultane- 
ously with  the  appearance  of  the  problem  itself,  and 
the  marvelous,  vitalizing  force  of  this  solution  is 
shown  by  the  fact  that  the  Jews  are  alive  today. 
This  solution  is  usually  called  "Messianism",  but,  in 
view  of  its  ultimate  objective,  it  maybe  more  properly 
termed  "Zionism,"  though  the  name  is  only  of  recent 
date.  It  simply  puts  the  problem  aside — by  declaring 
it  anomalous  and  temporary.  The  dispersion,  the 
Golus,  is  a  punishment  which  God  has  inflicted  upon 
his  people  for  its  sins.  As  soon  as  the  people  will  have 
atoned  for  these  sins,  God  will  send  his  messenger,  the 


374  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

Messiah,  to  bring  them  back  to  Zion,  where  they  will 
live  "as  in  the  days  of  old  and  as  in  ancient  years." 
Just  as  the  great  Prophet  of  the  first  Babylonian 
Exile  proclaimed:  "Comfort  ye,  comfort  ye  my 
people,  saith  your  God.  Speak  ye  to  the  heart  of 
Jerusalem,  and  cry  unto  her,  that  her  appointed  time 
is  accomplished,  that  her  iniquity  is  pardoned: 
for  she  hath  received  of  the  Lord's  hand  double  for 
all  her  sins,"- — so  the  Jews  of  the  second,  greater 
Exile  prayed,  less  eloquently  perhaps,  but  not  less 
fervently:  "On  account  of  our  sins  we  have  been 
exiled  from  our  land  and  removed  from  our  soil. 
Our  Father,  our  King,  reveal  the  glory  of  thy  King- 
dom over  us,  and  appear  and  arise  before  the  eyes  of 
all  living,  and  bring  together  our  scattered  from 
among  the  nations  and  gather  our  dispersed  from  the 
ends  of  the  earth."  The  anomalous  character  of  the 
Jewish  Golus  has  been  lastingly  impressed  upon  the 
mind  of  the  Jew,  by  means  and  in  ways  which  still 
excite  our  greatest  admiration  for  the  marvelously 
deep  psychological  insight  of  our  ancient  teachers. 
Thus  reducing  the  present  to  a  transitory  stage,  to  an 
opportunity  for  correcting  the  blunders  of  the  past 
and  preparing  the  glory  of  the  future,  this  doctrine 
made  the  Jew  indifferent  towards  the  influences  of 
the  outside  world,  and  enabled  him  to  feel  happy  and 
live  independently  amidst  outward  misery  and 
slavery. 

Modern  Zionism  is  a  continuation  of  the  Mes- 
sianic doctrine,  without  its  theological  egg-shells. 
Zionism,  too,  declares  the  existence  of  the  Jews 
among  the  nations  without  a  national  center  of  their 


DUBNOW'S  THEORY  OF  JEWISH  NATIONALISM  375 

own  as  an  anomaly  which  has  to  be  removed  by  every 
possible  effort.  The  individual  Jew  may  occasionally 
prosper  in  the  Golus.  He  may  become  a  Kommer- 
nenrat  in  Germany,  a  cabinet  minister  in  England, 
or  an  ambassador  in  other  countries.  But  the 
Jew'sh  nation  as  a  whole  can  fully  and  normally 
develop  only  on  its  ancient,  hallowed  soil.  There- 
fore, the  efforts  of  the  Jews  must  be  directed  towards 
creating  a  center  in  Palestine  as  a  basis  for  their 
national  development.  The  means,  however,  to 
which  Zionism  resorts  are  somewhat  different  from 
those  employed  by  Messianism.  Instead  of,  or  rather 
alongside  of,  praying  and  studying,  it  tries  to  attain 
its  end  by  more  worldly  contrivances,  by  a  Congress, 
a  Colonial  Trust,  a  National  Fund,  an  elaborate 
organization.  But,  like  the  Messianism  of  old,  it 
makes  the  Jewish  present  tolerable  by  drawing  courage 
and  comfort  from  the  Jewish  past  and  looking  for 
compensation  and  reward  to  the  Jewish  future. 

Diametrically  opposed  to  Zionism,  both  in  its 
ancient  and  modern  form,  is  the  theory  of  Assimila- 
tion. In  one  respect,  however,  it  agrees  with  Zionism, 
namely,  in  considering  the  existence  of  the  Jews 
among  the  nations  an  anomaly  which  has  to  be  dis- 
posed of.  But,  according  to  this  theory,  there  is  no 
need  to  go  to  Palestine  in  order  to  solve  the  problem. 
It  can  very  well  be  solved  on  the  spot.  All  that  the 
Jews  have  to  do  is  to  give  up  their  national  individu- 
ality, to  assimilate  themselves  to  the  nations  among 
which  they  live  and  thus  entirely  disappear  from  the 
face  of  the  earth.  There  are  numerous  forms  of  this 
•doctrine  of  Assimilation,  some  of  them  trying  to  con- 


376  PAST  AXD  PRESENT 

ceal  the  ultimate  goal.  But  whether  they  consciously 
or  unconsciously  deny  it,  at  the  bottom  of  all  of 
them  lies  the  idea  of  the  complete  decomposition  of 
Judaism. 

Both  the  doctrine  of  Zionism  and  the  theory  of 
Assimilation,  if  carried  out  in  practice,  present 
radical  and  the  only  logical  solutions  of  the  problem 
of  Judaism.  In  spite  of  this,  or  rather,  as  we  shall 
presently  see,  owing  to  this,  neither  of  them  can 
boast  of  having  taken  a  firm  grasp  on  the  bulk  of 
the  Jewish  people.  Their  strength — in  being  radical 
and  logical — has  become  their  weakness.  For  human 
life  is  not  regulated  by  logical  considerations,  but  by 
psychological  requirements.  Assimilation  proposes 
to  give  up  the  Jewish  individuality;  but  the  bulk  of 
our  people  still  possess  a  deeply  rooted  Jewish  con- 
sciousness —  sometimes  unconsciousness.  Zionism 
recommends  to  the  Jews  to  leave  the  nations  among 
which  they  live  and  make  themselves  independent; 
but  the  Jew  of  today  is  too  intimately  connected  with 
the  life  and  activities  of  his  neighbors  to  be  able  to 
renounce  them.  Jewry  is  dangerously  ill:  Assimila- 
tion proposes  suicide;  Zionism  recommends  trans- 
portation to  a  healthy  climate.  But  the  patient  has 
still  too  much  vitality  to  commit  suicide  and  too  little 
energy  to  bear  transportation.  The  only  remedy, 
therefore,  which  he  is  in  a  position  to  accept  is  one 
which  will  not  take  him  out  of  his  place,  and  will  yet 
enable  him  to  maintain  his  life.  In  other  words,  the 
only  theory  which  in  the  present  stage  of  Jewish 
development  is  likely  to  meet  with  enduring  success 
among  large  numbers  of  our  people  is  a  compromising 


DUBNOW'S  THEORY  OF  JEWISH  NATIONALISM   377 

solution,  a  solution  which,  by  declaring  the  Jewish 
Golus  a  normal  condition,  will  allow  the  Jews  to 
continue  their  present  relations  with  their  neighbors, 
and  at  the  same  time  preserve  their  Jewish  individual- 
ity,— to  remain  "among  the  nations,"  but  still 
continue  to  be  an  "Israel." 

An  attempt  in  this  direction  has  in  modern  times 
been  undertaken  by  a  theory  known  under  the  name 
of  the  "Jewish  Mission."  This  theory,  usually  asso- 
ciated with  the  opinion  that  the  Jews  are  not  a 
nation  but  merely  a  religious  community,  violently 
denies  that  the  Golus  is  an  anomaly.  On  the  contrary, 
it  passionately  declares  that  the  Dispersion  is  a  bless- 
ing for  which  the  Jews  have  to  be  grateful  to  their 
Maker.  God  scattered  the  Jews  all  over  the  world, 
not  as  a  punishment  for  their  sins,  but  as  a  reward  for 
their  religious  superiority,  in  order  that  they  might 
become  missionaries  to  all  the  nations  of  the  world  and 
teach  them  the  lofty  truths  of  pure  Monotheism  and 
morality.  By  virtue  of  their  mission,  the  Jews  are  in 
duty  bound  to  remain  in  Exile  and  direct  their  en- 
deavors towards  "converting"  their  neighbors  to  the 
principles  of  which  they  are  the  only  legitimate 
guardians. 

This  doctrine  has  numerous  adherents  on  both 
sides  of  the  Atlantic.  Nevertheless,  I  frankly  confess 
that  it  costs  me  a  considerable  amount  of  effort  to 
speak  about  it  seriously.  To  begin  with,  this  belief 
has  no  root  whatsoever  in  the  Jewish  past.  It  is 
true,  a  Jewish  mission,  or  rather  the  expectation 
that  the  principles  of  the  Jewish  religion  will  extend 
their  influence  over  the   non-Jewish  world,   is  often 


378  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

spoken  of  in  the  literature  of  the  Jews;  but  never 
with  the  addition  that  to  this  end  the  Jews  have  to 
give  up  their  own  national  center.  The  prophets,  to 
whom  the  champions  of  the  Mission  theory  refer  with 
special  fondness,  were  passionate  lovers  of  the  Jewish 
land,  and  the  Great  Unknown  Prophet,  who  more 
eloquently  than  all  others  preached  the  idea  of  a  Jewish 
Mission,  spoke  in  most  affectionate  and  most  enthusi- 
astic terms  of  the  return  of  the  Jewish  people  to  its  old 
home.  Of  course,  the  late  origin  of  a  theory  is  in  itself 
no  final  indictment  against  its  correctness.  But  there 
is  another  fact  which  is  even  more  apt  to  arouse  our 
suspicions, — I  refer  to  that  most  significant  fact  that 
the  theory  of  a  Jewish  Mission  is  entirely  unknown  in 
those  countries  where  the  Jews  still  live  a  genuine 
Jewish  life  and  cling  with  all  their  might  to  Judaism, 
and  that  its  influence  is  entirely  limited  to  Western 
Europe  and  America,  where  the  Jews  have  more  or 
less  loosened  the  ties  connecting  them  with  their 
tradition  and,  instead  of  being  the  missionaries  and 
teachers  of  the  nations  around  them,  have  become 
their  most  docile  and  submissive  pupils. 

It  is  an  easy  task  to  expose  the  hollowness  of  the 
logical  foundation  upon  which  this  belief  rests,  but 
it  is  scarcely  necessary.  I  have  simply  to  point  to 
one  fact,  which  is  sufficient  to  deal  the  death  blow 
to  the  whole  theory.  A  doctrine  or  a  conception  may 
often  seem  questionable  and  unfounded  from  an 
objective  point  of  view.  But  the  power  of  appeal  it 
has  for  its  adherents,  the  influence  it  exercises  upon 
their  minds  and,  consequently,  in  one  way  or  another, 
upon    their    lives,    justify    it    subjectively.     Such    a 


DUBNOW'S  THEORY  OF  JEWISH  NATIONALISM  379 

doctrine  may  not  be  true  as  a  logical  idea;  it  becomes 
true  as  a  psychological  conviction.  But  does  the 
theory  of  a  Jewish  Mission,  which  lays  upon  the 
shoulders  of  the  Jews  the  most  difficult  task  ever 
undertaken  by  any  nation,  exert  the  slightest  in- 
fluence upon  the  life  and  activity  of  the  individual 
Jew  or  of  the  Jews  as  a  whole?  I  think  I  need  not 
answer  this  question.  You  may  use  a  microscope  for 
your  investigations,  and  you  will  not  be  able  to 
detect  the  faintest  trace  of  any  living  effect  of  the 
doctrine  of  a  Jewish  Mission  upon  the  Jews,  except 
for  some  meaningless  outpourings  in  the  pulpit  and 
press.  A  theory  which  is  so  absolutely  barren,  which 
has  failed  so  utterly  to  lay  hold  on  its  own  adherents, 
and  cannot  even  claim  the  merit  of  a  deep  conviction, 
is  doomed  of  itself,  and  cannot  be  reckoned  among 
the  attempts  to  solve  problems  of  actual  life.  Yet, 
however  baseless  and  fruitless  this  theory  may  be  in 
itself,  it  is  extremely  valuable  to  us  as  a  symptom, 
showing  the  great,  nay,  the  burning  need  for  a 
doctrine  which  will  reconcile  the  Jew  to  his  present 
position  among  the  nations. 

The  first  serious  attempt  to  satisfy  this  burning 
need  is,  as  far  as  I  am  aware,  the  theory  of  Jewish 
Nationalism  propounded  by  the  man  whose  name  is 
indicated  in  the  title  of  this  lecture — by  S.  M.  Dub- 
now. 

Dubnow,  I  hope,  is  no  stranger  to  you.  Most  of 
you  have  probably  read  his  brilliant  little  volume  on 
Jewish  history  which  was  issued  by  the  Jewish 
Publication  Society  a  few  years  ago,    and  has  met 


380  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

with  considerable  success  in  this  country, — with 
much  greater  success,  in  fact,  than  the  German  trans- 
lation had  previously  had  in  Germany.1  I  may 
mention  in  passing  that,  both  as  an  historian  and  a 
writer,  Dubnow  occupies  a  commanding  position  in 
Russian-Jewish  literature.  Using  the  Russian  lan- 
guage as  his  medium  of  expression,  Dubnow  has 
published  numerous  contributions  of  great  scientific 
value  to  the  history  of  the  Jews,  and  is  now  issuing 
a  comprehensive  work  in  several  volumes  on  Jewish 
history.  But  though  occupied  with  the  past  of  the 
Jews,  Dubnow  at  the  same  time  eagerly  watches  the 
Jewish  present,  and  his  numerous  articles  on  burning 
Jewish  questions,  which  he  examines  with  the  far- 
reaching,  unbiased  eye  of  the  historian,  belong  to  the 
best  that  has  been  produced  along  these  lines  in  any 
language.  His  views  on  Jewish  Nationalism — the 
subject  of  this  lecture — are  but  slightly  touched 
upon  in  the  little  English  volume  mentioned  before, 
but  they  are  fully  and  elaborately  developed  in  a  long 
series  of  essays  which  appeared  between  1897  and 
1902  in  the  Russian-Jewish  monthly  Voskhod,  under 
the  title,  "Letters  on  Ancient  and  Modern  Judaism."2 

1  "Jewish  History.  An  Essay  in  the  Philosophy  of  History," 
Philadelphia,  1903.  The  English  translation  was  prepared  by 
Henrietta  Szold  from  the  German  translation  of  the  present 
writer,  which,  in  turn,  was  made  from  the  Russian. 

[2  The  essays  have  since  been  collected  and  published  in  re- 
vised and  amplified  form,  St.  Petersburg,  1907.  Prior  to  this 
publication  the  first  two  "Letters"  were  translated  into  German 
by  the  present  writer  and  issued  as  a  separate  volume  by  the 
Juediseher  Verlag,  under  the  title  Grundlagen  des  National- 
judentums  (Berlin,  1905.)] 


DUBNOW'S  THEORY  OF  JEWISH  NATIONALISM  381 

The  analysis  of  his  theory  which  is  given  in  the 
following  is  primarily  based  upon  these  "Letters," 
but,  in  order  to  render  the  analysis  more  concise 
and  more  transparent,  I  shall  try  to  handle  the  subject 
as  independently  and  as  unconstrainedly  as  possible. 

The  name  by  which  Dubnow  designates  his  theory  is 
"Spiritual  Nationalism," — and  in  these  two  words  he 
presents  to  us  in  a  nutshell  the  leading  thoughts  of 
his  doctrine,  clearly  distinguishing  it  from  the  other 
solutions  of  the  Jewish  problem.  "Nationalism" 
defines  the  Jews  as  a  nation,  which  is  separated, 
or  rather  differentiated,  from  all  other  nations 
and  claims  an  independent  national  development. 
The  attribute  "Spiritual"  characterizes  the  Jews, 
in  distinction  from  all  other  nations,  as  one  which 
is  kept  together  solely  by  spiritual  means  and, 
therefore,  needs  no  territory  nor  other  political 
agencies  for  its  existence.  The  former  term  implies 
a  protest  against  Assimilation;  the  latter  indicates 
opposition  to  Zionism. 

Let  us  examine  a  little  more  closely  the  views 
imbedded  in  these  two  words. 

By  hoisting  the  flag  of  Jewish  Nationalism,  Dub- 
now voices  his  opposition  not  only  to  the  theory 
of  Assimilation,  which  hopes  for  the  disappearance  of 
Judaism,  but  also  to  that  other  doctrine  mentioned 
before  which  proclaims  that  the  Jews  constitute 
merely  a  religious  community  and  belong,  with  regard 
to  racial  affinity,  to  the  respective  nationalities  among 
which  they  live.  In  his  "Letters"  Dubnow  dwells  at 
length  on  this  view  and  tries  to  refute  it  in  detail. 
If  I  were  delivering  this  lecture  in  Germany  or  in  a 


382  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

country  influenced  by  German  thought,  I  would  be 
compelled  to  devote  a  great  deal  of  attention  to  this 
question,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  conception  of 
the  Jews  as  a  religious  community,  evolved  in  Ger- 
many by  Moses  Mendelssohn,  has  still  a  large  number 
of  ardent  champions  in  Europe.  But  here  in  America, 
and  especially  in  this  city,  where  members  of  all  races 
of  the  world  live  peaceably  together,  and  where 
the  Jew  who  feels  tempted  to  attach  himself  to  a  non- 
Jewish  race  has  an  embarrassing  choice,  extending 
over  the  wide  stretch  between  the  big-bodied  Irish- 
man and  the  pig-tailed  Chinese, — here  the  Jews  must 
acknowledge  their  race  against  their  own  will. 

But  is  Nationalism  in  general  and  Jewish  National- 
ism in  particular  compatible  with  the  highest  ideals 
of  morality,  with  the  universal  brotherhood  of  man? 
An  objection  of  this  kind  can  often  be  heard  from 
Jews  on  either  side  of  the  Atlantic,  and  from  the  most 
high-minded  and  big-hearted  among  them.  The 
fact  itself  that  such  an  objection  is  raised  is  most 
significant,  and  strikingly  illustrates  the  crippled 
state  of  our  inward  life.  If  you  were  to  ask  the 
member  of  any  nation,  however  small  and  insignificant, 
whether  he  is  able  to  justify  his  attachment  to  his 
nation  by  abstract  speculation,  he  would  probably 
laugh  at  you  or,  even  more  probably,  would  fail  to 
grasp  your  meaning  altogether.  But  feelings  that 
are  a  matter  of  course  with  other  nations  have  first 
to  be  sifted  philosophically  and  filtered  ethically 
before  they  can  get  access  to  the  minds  of  the  Jews. 
It  is  for  this  reason  that  Dubnow  discusses  this 
question  with  great  earnestness  and  detail  in  various 
parts  of  his  Letters. 


DUBNOW'S  THEORY  OF  JEWISH  NATIONALISM  383 

His  arguments  on  this  point  may  be  summed  up 
as  follows:  A  nation  is  a  collective  individual,  i.  e., 
while  consisting  of  many  single  members,  it  consti- 
tutes a  sharply  marked  type,  a  national  personality, 
with  special  characteristics,  special  habits,  aims,  and 
ideals  which  distinguish  it  clearly  from  any  other 
collective  individuality.  The  freedom  of  the  indi- 
vidual person  has  become  an  axiom  in  all  civilized 
countries,  has  become,  as  we  ought  to  add,  the  corner- 
stone and  capstone  of  this  great  Republic.  In  the 
same  way  the  freedom  of  the  individual  nation,  its 
right  of  independent  existence  and  of  the  untrammeled 
development  of  its  characteristics  must  become 
an  established  truth  among  the  nations  of  the  earth. 
Those  that  are  opposed  to  Nationalism  on  account  of 
the  repulsive  forms  which  it  sometimes  assumes  are 
just  as  short-sighted  as  the  rationalists  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century  who  rejected  all  religion  on  the  ground 
that  it  had  been  so  frequently  abused.  In  former 
times  when  liberty  was  identified  with  equality,  the 
justification  of  Nationalism,  which  assumes  the  in- 
equality of  national  types,  could  be  doubted.  But 
modern  thought,  which  proclaims  the  right  and 
necessity  of  differentiation,  looks  upon  every  attempt 
to  equalize  or  obliterate  individual  and  national 
characteristics  as  most  disastrous  to  our  civilization. 
We  pay  our  tribute  of  recognition  and  admiration  to 
the  man  who  fully  asserts  and  develops  his  own 
individuality  and  we  object  to  him  if  he  tries  to  achieve 
it  by  destroying  other  individualities.  The  same 
criterion  should  be  applied  in  national  life.  We 
ought  to  distinguish  between  national  Individualism 


384  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

which  endeavors  to  preserve  and  defend  its  own 
nationality,  and  national  Egotism  which  is  aggressive 
and  tries  to  suppress  and  annihilate  other  nation- 
alities. The  latter  is  immoral;  the  former  is  not  only 
justified,  but  is  a  moral  duty.  Jewish  Nationalism, 
in  its  essence  spiritual,  is  naturally  confined  to  a  de- 
fensive course,  and  is,  therefore,  in  perfect  accord 
with  the  highest  ethical  standards.  The  Jew  who 
allows  his  own  national  personality  to  be  suppressed 
by  any  other  nation  not  only  acts  himself  against  all 
ethical  principles,  but  he  also  induces  others  to  act 
in  the  same  way. 

And  only  after  having  given  sufficient  thought  to  this 
obvious,  simple  truth,  we  realize  how  false  a  view  of  Na- 
tionalism has  been  held — and  partly  is  still  held — by  the 
majority  of  advanced  Jews  in  Western  Europe  and  in 
Russia.  How  bitterly  mistaken  were  we  when  in  the  name 
of  "liberal"  principles  we  condemned  so  true  a  liberal  prin- 
ciple as  the  right  of  every  historical  nation  to  preserve  its 
individuality.  We  have  confounded  two  contradictory  ideas 
with  each  other:  national  individualism  and  nationalegotism, 
forgetting  that  inthesame  measure  inwhichtheinfringement 
of  the  individual  freedom  of  another  is  immoral,  the  defense 
of  one's  own  individuality  is  lofty  and  noble.  While  we  were 
fighting  for  the  principles  of  liberty  and  equality,  we  our- 
selves prompted  the  violation  of  these  principles  by  re- 
nouncing our  own  national  freedom  in  favor  of  another's 
caprice.  Acknowledging  the  right  of  other  nations  stronger 
than  ourselves  to  assimilate  us  or  even  to  absorb  us,  we 
by  this  very  admission  justified  the  national  egotism  of 
these  nations,  whereas  to  our  own  nation  we  denied  the 
natural  right  even  of  national  individualism.  And  acting 
in  this  way,  we  fancied  ourselves  the  knights  of  universal 
brotherhood, and  cherished  the  hope  that  our  national  self- 
sacrifice — which,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  was  not  an  action  of 
magnanimity  but  of  pusillanimity — would  be  rewarded  by 


DU-BNOW'S  THEORY  OF  JEWISH  NATIONALISM  385 

increased  love  and  respect  for  us,  until  we  were  taught  by 
experience  that  one  acts  respectfully  only  towards  a  person- 
ality, a  character,  but  not  towards  a  submissive  creature 
which  allows  everybody  to  obliterate  it. 

Now  that  Nationalism  has  been  stamped  with  the 
approval  of  Ethics,  let  us  examine  the  peculiar  nature 
of  Jewish  Nationalism.  In  order  to  understand 
Jewish  Nationalism  we  have  to  establish  first  what 
national  characteristics  are  in  general  and  the  way 
in  which  they  gradually  develop. 

A  nation,  according  to  the  definition  of  Dubnow, 
is  an  historico-cultural  group,  possessing,  by  virtue  of 
its  origin  and  the  conditions  of  its  development, 
certain  traits  of  character,  a  certain  disposition  of 
mental  and  moral  faculties  and  a  certain  stock  of 
historical  traditions,  distinguishing  it  from  other 
equal  groups, — in  short,  constituting  a  characteristic 
collective  personality. 

The  national  characteristics  (i.  e.,  the  traits  of  character, 
mental  disposition  and  common  traditions)  develop  by 
way  of  an  independent  evolution,  covering  various  phases: 
(1)  racial;  (2)  political:  (3)  historico-cultural;  and  (4)  spir- 
itual, and  in  particular,  religious. 

Racial  characteristics  are  especially  dominant  in 
the  primitive  stage  of  a  nation,  when  it  is  a  nation 
only  in  the  physical  significance  of  the  word  (natus, 
birth,  natio,  a  species,  an  aggregate  of  kindred  families 
or  tribes.) 

In  the  next  stage  of  development  the  political 
feature  comes  into  prominence.  A  common  territory 
and  state,  which  together  constitute  the  idea  of  a 
fatherland,  knit  the  members  of  a  nation  closely  to 
each  other  and  preserve  their  national  unity. 


386  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

The  highest  degree  of  national  development  is 
attained  by  the  rise  of  historico-cultural  and  spiritual 
forces. 

Common  historical  recollections,  habits,  inclinations,  emo- 
tions, beliefs  and  ethical  ideals,  the  fruits  of  national  pro- 
ductiveness— all  this  binds  the  members  of  a  nation  to 
one  another  with  the  strongest  ties.  This  is  what  we 
call  the  "National  Spirit."  This  spiritual  individuality 
it  is  for  which  every  nation,  having  gained  self-consciousness, 
fights  when  threatened  by  the  intrusion  of  strange  elements. 

In  point  of  fact,  these  spiritual  forces  exercise  an 
enormous  influence  and  form  the  principal  basis  of 
national  unity  even  in  the  political  stage  of  national 
development. 

Yet  there  are  cases  when  a  nation  is  compelled  to  renounce 
for  a  long  time,  or  for  ever,  the  protective  shell  of  political 
independence.  Such  a  contingency  is  the  touchstone  of 
national  feeling.  If  a  given  nation,  in  consequence  of  a 
long  historico-cultural  development,  has  become  so  greatly 
strengthened  in  spirit  that  it  feels  able  to  maintain  itself 
as  an  original  national  entity,  despite  the  lack  of  political 
independence  and  territorial  integrity — such  a  national 
group  has  attained  the  highest  degree  of  national  evolution. 
It  is  a  sharply  marked  collective  individuality  which  cannot 
be  obliterated.  A  fluid  body  needs  a  vessel,  and  receives 
from  it  its  shape.  But  the  same  fluid,  when  hardened  and 
crystallized,  has  no  need  of  any  vessel. 

To  this  class  of  highly  developed  nations  belong  the 
Jews.  Their  racial  characteristics  are  predominant 
in  the  early  period  of  their  development,  in  the  times 
of  the  Patriarchs  and  the  Judges.  The  political 
element  comes  into  prominence  in  the  period  of  the 
Kings  and — after  a  long  interval — in  the  age  of  the 
Maccabees.  But  at  the  same  time  the  spiritual 
character  of  the  Jewish  nation  is  thoroughly  em- 
phasized by  the  prophets.     Having  lost  their  political 


DUBNOW'S  THEORY  OF  JEWISH  NATIONALISM  387 

independence,  the  Jews  have  been  held  together  by 
spiritual  ties  exclusively,  and  the  remarkable  strength 
of  these  ties  has  been  demonstrated  by  the  experience 
of  two  thousand  years. 

We  are  the  members  of  a  peculiar  historico-spiritual 
nation  which  has  shown  its  ability  to  get  along  without 
political  independence.  We  are  bound  together  by  some- 
thing which  is  stronger  than  political  unity,  by  the  unity  of 
origin,  by  common  historical  evolution,  common  traditions, 
recollections  of  the  past,  hopes  for  the  future — in  short, 
common  individual  traits  and  feelings  which  characterize  the 
indivisible  entity,  called  Jewry.  In  the  course  of  centuries, 
as  generation  followed  generation,  similarity  of  historical 
fortunes  produced  a  mass  of  similar  impressions  which  have 
becomecrystallized,and  have  thrown  off  the  deposit  that  may 
be  called  'the  Jewish  national  soul.'1  History  has  created  a 
certain  spiritual  ground  under  our  feet.  By  further  develop- 
ing upon  this  ground,  we  shall  continue  to  be  a  nation  full 
of  original  creative  powers.  By  breaking  away  from  this 
ground,  we  shall  lose  our  individuality  and  that  unrestricted 
power  of  productivity  which  is  inherent  in  every  plant  only 
in  its  natural  soil. 

Accordingly,  the  Jews  form  a  nation,  which  endeavors  to 
preserve  its  individuality  and  originality.  Having,  however, 
been  deprived  for  a  long  time  of  one  of  the  material  prere- 
quisites of  a  nation — the  unity  of  a  state, — the  Jewish 
nation,  in  distinction  from  others,  has  to  be  recognized  as  an 
historico-spiritual  nation.  The  lack  of  a  substantial  political 
element  in  Jewish  Nationalism  is  not  a  sign  of  its  weakness, 
but  of  its  extraordinary  power.  A  national  unit,  which  has 
been  able  to  maintain  itself  without  the  shell  of  political 
independence  for  a  period  of  nearly  two  thousand  years, 
and  under  the  most  unfavorable  conditions,  besides — such 
a  unit  must  be  declared  firm  and  indestructible. 

But   is   Jewish    Nationalism    compatible   with    the 
fact  that  the  Jews  are  scattered  among  other  nations? 


1  See  Dubnow,  Jewish  History,  Philadelphia,  1903,  p.  28. 


388  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

Is  not  the  idea  of  a  separate  Jewish  nationality  sub- 
versive of  the  citizenship  of  the  Jews  in  the  different 
body  politics? 

In  discussing  this  question,  Dubnow  is  fully  aware 
of  touching  the  vital  spot  of  his  whole  theory.  The 
solution  which  he  offers  to  this  grave  problem  is  most 
ingenuous  and  fascinating. 

The  assumption  that  the  Jews,  while  forming  a 
distinctly  separate  nationality,  cannot  be  at  the 
same  time  loyal  citizens  of  their  respective  states, 
rests  on  a  grave  error  which  is  extremely  dangerous, — 
to  wit,  the  identification  of  State  and  Nationality. 
In  former  times  the  state  was  identified  with  religion, 
one  creed  assuming  the  role  of  a  "dominant  church," 
while  all  other  forms  of  religion  were  more  or  less 
cruelly  oppressed.  The  disastrous  effects  of  this 
identification  of  State  and  Church  hardly  need  to  be 
dwelled  upon  before  an  assembly  of  American  citizens. 
After  a  long  and  passionate  struggle,  the  civilized 
countries  have  at  last  achieved  the  separation  be- 
tween Church  and  State,  and  nowhere  is  this  separa- 
tion more  successful  and  complete  than  in  this  great 
Republic.  But  the  idea  identifying  State  and  Nation 
and  recognizing  only  one  "dominant  nationality," 
which  is  entitled  to  suppress  all  the  other  nationalities 
of  the  same  body  politic,  is  just  as  erroneous  and 
certainly  just  as  dangerous.  In  fact,  the  countries 
with  only  one  nationality  are  the  exception.  By  far 
the  majority  harbor  a  population  consisting  of 
different  nationalities,  be  it  by  way  of  conquest, 
as  in  Russia  or  Austria,  or  by  peaceful  compact,  as 
in  Switzerland  or  America.  Where  the  state  identi- 
fies itself  with  one  nationality  and  tries  to  suppress,  or 


DUBNOW'S  THEORY  OF  JEWISH  NATIONALISM  389 

oppress,  the  others,  the  result  in  political  life  is  a  series 
of  disasters, — compare  Austria  and  Russia.  Where 
the  state  recognizes  the  equality  and  inner  inde- 
pendence of  all  nationalities,  the  political  order  is 
safely  and  easily  maintained — see  America  and 
Switzerland.  Therefore  we  must  clearly  distinguish 
between  state  and  nationality,  as  has  long  been  done 
with  regard  to  state  and  religion.  Where  this  dis- 
tinction has  not  yet  been  made  it  is  sure  to  be  made 
in  the  course  of  natural  development.  The  spheres 
of  state  and  nationality  are  altogether  different  and 
do  not  clash  with  each  other. 

The  state  is  a  formal  union;  nationality  an  inner  union. 
The  members  of  the  former  are  united  by  common  interests; 
the  members  of  the  latter  by  common  feelings  and  inclina- 
tions. 

Looked  at  from  this  point  of  view,  "Israel  among  the 
Nations"  becomes  a  natural  and  normal  phenomenon. 
The  Jews  can  at  the  same  time  be  faithful  citizens 
of  their  respective  states  and  devoted  members  of 
their  scattered  nationality. 

The  question  is  often  raised  whether  the  Jew  can 
be  a  good  citizen,  a  patriot — we  must  not  forget  that 
Dubnow  is  speaking  here  as  a  European ;  in  America 
I  hope  nobody  will  dare  to  doubt  the  loyalty  of  the 
Jew.  But  he  who  puts  such  a  question,  retorts 
Dubnow,  should  be  referred  to  the  other  politically 
dependent  nationalities,  like  the  Irish  in  England, 
the  Finns  in  Russia,  the  Bohemians  in  Austria,  the 
Poles  in  the  three  different  countries  among  which 
they  are  divided,  and  so  on.  A  member  of  such  a 
nation,  provided  his  nationality  be  given  equal  rights 
and  equal   freedom   of  development  with   the   other 


390  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

nations  of  the  state,  can  be  a  faithful,  nay,  a  devoted 
citizen  of  his  country,  a  patriot.  Wherever  his 
national  rights  are  trodden  down,  and  his  national 
existence  threatened,  his  patriotism  will  correspond 
to  the  treatment  he  experiences. 

Let  us  take  the  Poles  as  an  instance.  The  Poles 
are  surely  most  ardent  members  of  their  nationality, 
which  is  divided  between  Russia,  Austria  and  Prussia. 
Nevertheless  the  Pole  in  Austria  is  a  good  citizen 
of  the  Austrian  Empire  and  takes  an  active  part  in  its 
political  life,  while  in  Russia  and,  since  recently,  in 
Prussia  his  loyalty  as  a  citizen  is  doubtful.  The  Jew, 
of  course,  whom  the  experience  of  past  ages  has  taught 
to  appreciate  a  home,  is  more  modest  in  his  demands, 
and  is  a  good  citizen  even  where  he  is  not  properly 
treated.  But  he  is  by  no  means  bound  to  be  so  from 
the  standpoint  of  justice  and  morality.  The  obli- 
gations of  the  individual  towards  the  state  are  binding 
only  so  long  as  the  state  lives  up  to  its  duty:  to 
defend  the  life  and  property  of  the  individual.  *  So 
it  is  with  the  nation.  One  would  scarcely  expect  the 
Armenians  to  love  the  Turkish  Government,  whose 
only  care  for  its  Armenian  subjects  manifests  itself 
in  butchering  them.  Why  should  one  demand 
Russian  patriotism  from  the  Jews  in  Russia?  Such  a 
demand  is  unjust,  inhuman,  preposterous.  But  that 
the  Jews,  whenever  treated  humanely  and  protected 
in  their  individual  and  national  life,  can  be  patriots, 
sacrificing  life  and  treasure  for  their  country,  hardly 
needs  demonstration  outside  of  Russia. 

One  might  perhaps  raise  the  objection  that  the 
Jews  are  different  from  other  politically  dependent 


DUBNOW'S  THEORY  OF  JEWISH  NATIONALISM  391 

nationalities,  inasmuch  as  the  latter  live  on  their  own 
territory,  whereas  the  Jews  have  no  claim  to  any 
territory  in  Europe. 

The  mere  possibility  of  an  objection  of  this  kind 
excites  the  indignation  of  Dubnow,  the  historian. 
He  plunges  into  a  lengthy  historical  investigation  to 
show  that  the  Jews  have  both  an  historical  and  moral 
right  on  European  territory,  equal  in  its  validity  to 
that  of  any  other  nation.  The  Jews  colonized  Western 
Europe  as  Roman  citizens  long  before  the  modern 
nations  came  into  existence,  and  even  in  Russia  we 
find  the  Jews  at  the  threshold  of  Russian  history. 
Poland  was  developed  and  civilized  mostly  by  Jewish 
endeavors,  so  much  so  that  when  in  1539  the  rumor 
spread  that  the  Jews  of  Lithuania  intended  to  emigrate 
to  Turkey,  the  Polish  king,  as  sovereign  of  Lithuania, 
ordered  a  strict  investigation  and  was  appeased  only 
when  he  had  convinced  himself  that  the  rumor  was 
unfounded.  And  to  make  a  special  addition  for 
America:  there  were  Jews  on  the  ship  which  carried 
Columbus  to  the  New  World,  and  for  two  hundred  and 
fifty  years  the  Jews,  arriving  in  small  and  in  large 
numbers,  have  contributed  their  best  towards  the 
upbuilding  of  this  mighty  republic.  The  fact  that 
the  territory  claimed  by  the  Jew  is  not  confined  to 
definite  portions  of  Europe,  as  is,  for  instance,  the 
case  with  the  Poles  and  the  Bohemians,  but  extends 
all  over  the  continent  by  no  means  weakens  the  right 
of  the  Jew  to  consider  himself  an  aboriginal  inhabitant 
of  Europe.  The  Jews  in  the  Middle  Ages  were  not 
persecuted  because  they  were  considered  strangers, 
but  as  natives  who  professed  an  heretical  religion.    But 


392  PAST  AND  PRESENT 


now  that  the  nations  have  separated  their  political 
life  from  the  religious,  the  Jewish  people,  though 
remaining  a  separate  nationality,  can  be,  and  ought 
to  be,  at  the  same  time  a  fully  recognized  member  of 
the  family  of  European  nations. 

In  emphasizing  so  strongly  the  necessity  of  a 
separate  and  independent  development  of  the  Jewish 
nation,  Dubnow  might  be  charged  with  particularistic 
tendencies,  with  attempting  to  erect  a  new  spiritual 
ghetto,  instead  of  the  old  ghetto  of  brick  and  mortar. 
Dubnow  decidedly  repudiates  this  charge. 

Under  no  circumstances  do  I  advocate  artificial  isolation 
and  separation.  I  maintain  that  the  Jews  and  the 
Christians  should  by  all  means  get  nearer  to  each  other, 
but  on  equal  terms.  The  Jew  in  approaching  the  Christian 
shall  not  subordinate  his  own  national  individuality  to  the 
national  individuality  of  the  other,  but  both  shall  co- 
ordinate themselves,  in  obedience  to  the  highest  demands  of 
justice.  If  the  Christian  declines  friendship  on  equal  terms, 
then  the  Jew  with  self-respect  will  stop  his  efforts  and  live  for 
himself.  This  you  may  call  separation,  but  it  is  compulsory 
separation,  aiming  at  the  maintenance  of  individual  freedom 
and  national  honor. 

On  the  ground  of  all  the  preceding  expositions,  we 
may  draw  the  following  general  consclusions: 

Jewish  historico-spiritual  Nationalism  is  not  in  contra- 
diction to  the  general  political  duties  of  the  different  portions 
of  Jewry  in  different  states.  Just  as  every  man  can  be  a 
loving  member  of  his  family  and  at  the  same  time  a  citizen  of 
his  country,  so  also  every  group  in  Jewry,  while  gravitating 
towards  the  common  national  family,  and  championing  its 
interests,  can  at  the  same  time  partake  in  the  political  life 
of  the  country  and  devote  itself  to  its  welfare,  provided,  of 
course,  that  the  Jews  enjoy  complete  equality  of  rights  with 
the  other  sections  of  the  population.     Thus  the  Jews  all 


DUBNOW'S  THEORY  OF  JEWISH  NATIONALISM  393 


over  the  world  do  not  form  a  state  in  a  state,  but  a  nation 
among  nations,  an  historico-spiritual  nation  among  the 
political  nations. 

During  the  era  of  our  first  emancipation  of  1791  we  have 
fought  merely  for  our  civil  rights  in  the  European  coun- 
tries.    Now  the  time  has  come  to  claim  also  our  national 
rights,  which,  as  has  been  shown  above,  are  in  complete 
accord  with  the  legal  and  civic  position  of  various  sections  of 
the  Jewish   nation  in  Christian  countries.     The  historico- 
spiritual  Nationalism  of  the  Jews  has  in  its  inner  essence 
no  aggressive,  but  an  exclusively  defensive  tendency.     What 
we  demand  is  but  a  respectful  attitude  towards  our  national 
personality,  towards  our  religion,  our  historical  traditions, 
the  best  features  of  our  national  life.     We  claim  that  right 
of  a  genuinely  independent  development  of  our  inner  life 
which  has  been  conceded  to  all  other  politically  dependent 
nations. 
These,  in  short,  are  the  leading  principles  of  Dub- 
now's  theory  of  Jewish   Nationalism,  as  far  as  they 
are  laid  down  in  the  first  two  fundamental  "Letters 
on  Ancient  and  Modern  Judaism."       In  the  following 
"Letters"  Dubnow  tries  to  show  how  these  principles 
are  to  be  applied  in  practice.     He  demands  that  our 
education   be  established  on   such   foundations  that, 
instead  of  making  the  Jew,  as  it  does  now,  spiritually 
and  culturally  a  stranger  to  his  own  people,  it  should 
satisfy  completely  both  the   religio-national  and   the 
civil  wants  of  the  Jew,  and  he  insists  that  wherever  the 
Jews  are  kept  back  from  carrying  out  this  purpose 
they  should  establish  national  schools  of  their  own. 
He   advocates   a   separate   political   Jewish   party   in 
those  countries  in  which   all   the  other  nationalities 
are  equally  organized,   and   he   quotes  with  evident 
satisfaction    the    half    sarcastic,    half    contemptuous 
rebuttal  of  Mark  Twain  to  a  Jewish  lawyer  in  Austria 


394  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

who  had  boasted  to  him  of  the  fact  that  the  Jews 
were  the  only  nationality  in  the  Dual  Empire  which 
had  no  political  party  of  its  own.  In  short,  he  main- 
tains that  all  our  national  activity  should  be  ruled 
by  the  principle  of  Autonomism,  i.  e.,  of  a  genuine 
autonomous  Jewish  life  as  far  as  it  is  in  agreement 
with  the  political  life  of  the  country.  I  would  largely 
exceed  the  limits  of  a  lecture  were  I  to  go  into  further 
details,  and  must,  therefore,  confine  myself  to  these 
few  meagre  indications  of  the  practical  consequences 
of  his  theory.  I  should  only  like  to  add  in  a  general 
way  that  the  ideas  of  Dubnow,  which  at  the  time 
when  they  were  first  uttered  were  of  a  purely  aca- 
demic character,  have  assumed  enormous  actual 
importance  in  the  recent  turn  in  Russian  political 
life.  The  representatives  of  the  new  movement 
expressly  advocate  the  freedom  of  the  inner  life  of 
every  nationality  living  on  Russian  territory,  and 
the  Jews,  though  still  deprived  of  their  most  primitive 
human  rights,  demand  not  only  their  rights  as  men 
and  citizens,  but  they  also  openly  and  manfully 
present  their  claims  to  an  independent  existence  and 
development  as  a  nationality.1 


1  As  an  example — unum  pro  multo — I  may  mention  the  fact 
that  at  the  convention  of  Russian  journalists  which  took  place 
in  St.  Petersburg  on  April  18-21,  1905,  the  following  resolution, 
moved  by  the  representative  of  the  Russian-Jewish  organ 
Voskhod,  was  unanimously  adopted:  "The  convention  deems 
it  necessary  expressly  to  demand  equal  civil  and  political  rights 
for  the  Jews,  as  well  as  the  right  of  the  Jewish  people  to  cultural- 
national  self-determination,  such  as  the  autonomy  of  the  school, 
communal  self-government,  and  freedom  of  the  national  Ian- 


DUBNOW'S  THEORY  OF  JEWISH  NATIONALISM  395 

Dubnow  himself,  as  has  been  alluded  to  before, 
considers  his  theory  of  Jewish  Nationalism  a  synthesis 
between  Assimilation  and  Zionism,  combining  the 
merits  and  avoiding  the  defects  of  both.  But 
placing  the  center  of  his  theory  in  the  conception  of 
a  National  Judaism,  he  is  naturally  more  favorably 
inclined  towards  Zionism,  which  presents  this  con- 
ception in  an  inaccurate  shape,  than  to  Assimilation, 
which  denies  this  idea  altogether.  Yet,  in  spite  of 
his  sympathies,  his  opposition  to  Zionism  is  well- 
defined.  In  two  "Letters,"  especially  devoted  to 
this  purpose,  and  in  several  passages  in  his  other 
"Letters,"  he  tries  to  explain  and  justify  his  negative 
attitude  toward  Zionism.  His  argumentation  may 
be  summed  up  in  the  following  two  assertions: 

First,  the  ideal  of  Zionism  is  unnecessary,  since 
Jewish  Nationalism,  being  of  a  purely  spiritual 
nature,  needs  no  territory  of  its  own.  Zionism  like 
paganism  of  old  cannot  conceive  a  lofty  abstract  idea 
without  embodying  it  in  an  idol. 

Second,  Zionism  is  impossible,  since  its  ideal  can 
never  be  realized. 

As  for  the  latter  objection — the  impracticability 
of  Zionism — I  think  it  will  never  be  refuted  by  argu- 
ments but  only  by  facts,  and  it  will  last  so  long  as 
Zionism  does   not   throw  off  its   "ism"   and   become 

uage."  [An  account  of  the  struggle  of  Russian  Jewry  for 
national  rights  since  1905  will  be  found  in  the  forthcoming  third 
volume  of  Dubnow's  "History  of  the  Jews  in  Russia  and  Poland." 
In  the  same  volume  will  also  be  found  a  later  formulation  of  the 
author's  doctrine  of  Spiritual  Nationalism,  or  National-Cultural 
Autonomism,  which,  as  a  result  of  the  Russian  revolution  of  1917, 
is  approaching  its  realization.] 


396  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

Zion.  As  far  as  the  former  argument  is  concerned — 
the  superfluousness  of  a  separate  territory  for  the 
Jews, — I  am  sure  its  fallacy  can  be  demonstrated 
convincingly.  But  I  have  no  intention  to  enter  here 
the  field  of  Zionist  polemics.  This  lecture,  though 
arranged  by  the  Propaganda  Committee  of  the 
Federation  of  American  Zionists,  does  not  pursue  any 
Zionistic  tendencies.  Zionism  is  not  the  narrow 
program  of  a  party,  but  a  whole  Weltanschauung, 
which  can  be  acquired  only  after  prolonged  mental 
and  psychological  endeavors.  I  do  not  believe  in 
Zionists  who  are  won  by  a  single  lecture,  and  bitter 
experiences  of  late  with  easily-gained  Zionists  have 
made  us  more  skeptical  than  ever  in  this  respect. 
Zionism  must,  first  of  all,  be  based  unconditionally 
upon  the  recognition  of  Jewish  Nationalism,  and  I 
frankly  confess  that  the  Jew  who  acknowledges  the 
necessity  and  legality  of  a  genuine  development  of 
the  Jewish  national  spirit,  but  does  not  care  for  a 
separate  territory,  appeals  to  me  more  strongly  than 
the  Zionist  who  preaches  the  necessity  of  a  territory, 
though  it  only  be  as  a  Nachtasyl,  and  is  not  concerned 
about  the  national  spirit  of  Judaism.  The  purpose 
of  this  lecture  will  therefore  be  successfully  achieved 
if  it  will  lead  some  of  you  to  consider,  and  a  few  of 
you  to  acknowledge,  the  theory  of  Jewish  Nationalism 
in  the  form  given  it  by  Dubnow.  This  theory  is 
perhaps  not  altogether  new.  I  should  not  wonder 
if  many  of  you  were  to  tell  me  afterwards  that  they 
had  always  felt  the  same  way.  But  it  is  the  merit  of 
a  theory  that  it  raises  our  unconscious  feelings  to 
conscious  ideas,  and  in  this  new  shape  converts  them 


DUBNOW'S  THEORY  OF  JEWISH  NATIONALISM  397 

into  powerful  living  agencies.  The  doctrine  of  Jewish 
Nationalism,  if  duly  recognized,  will  be  of  great 
benefit  both  to  Jews  and  non-Jews.  By  declaring 
the  Jews  to  be  a  nationality  it  purifies  the  Jewish  at- 
mosphere of  the  stifling  church  air,  which  is  deadening 
to  every  fresh  immediate  impulse,  and  places  our  activ- 
ity in  the  broad  daylight  of  national  life.  By  defining 
exactly  the  relationship  between  nationality  and 
citizenship  it  gives  us  that  frankness  and  uprightness 
which  is  inseparable  from  manhood  and  dignity. 

But  Jewish  Nationalism  will  also  be  of  benefit  to 
our  neighbors.  I  lay  special  emphasis  on  this  point, 
for  the  reason  that  it  carries  a  particularly  strong 
appeal  to  the  Jewish  mind.  The  Jews  are  extrava- 
gantly altruistic  in  their  public  life  and  care  far  more 
for  the  interests  of  others  than  for  their  own  interests. 
The  majority  of  those  Jews  who  try  to  get  rid  of 
Judaism  do  not  do  so  because  their  Jewish  feelings 
have  been  weakened,  but  from  the  mistaken  notion 
that  their  national  death  is  a  prerequisite  of  their  love 
for  their  country,  for  the  Jews  too  belong — 

Zu  dent  Stamme  jener  Asra, 

Die  da  sterben,  wenn  sie  lieben    .    .    . 

The  theory  of  Jewish  Nationalism,  which  proclaims 
that  the  productivity  and,  therefore,  usefulness  of 
the  Jew  stands  in  exact  proportion  to  the  strength  of 
his  Jewish  consciousness,  will  convince  them  of  their 
error.  It  will  show  them  that  their  national  self- 
immolation  is  not  only  superfluous,  but  also  harmful, 
standing  on  the  same  line  with  the  suicide  of  the 
blue-jacket  in  Heine's  story  who,  in  his  anxiety  to 
demonstrate  his  affection  for  his  captain,  threw  him- 


398  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

self  into  the  sea,  shouting,  "I'm  dying  for  Captain 
Jackson!"  Instead  of  sacrificing  themselves  Jewishly, 
these  Jews  would  do  better  to  lead  an  active,  vigorous 
Jewish  life — in  the  interests  of  Captain  Jackson. 
A  Jewish  population,  deeply  rooted  in  its  national 
soil,  clinging  to  the  traditions  of  a  great  past  and 
upholding  the  ideals  of  a  still  greater  teaching,  will 
be  a  most  valuable  and  stimulating  factor  in  the 
public  and  civic  life  of  any  country.  A  Jewish  ele- 
ment, inwardly  un-Jewish,  without  the  backbone  of 
national  tradition,  and  without  the  hold  of  a  national 
hope,  is  of  little  value  to  its  country,- — only  an 
arithmetic  addition  to  the  numbers  of  its  population. 
The  thinking  Jew,  in  examining  the  different  solutions 
of  the  Jewish  problem,  cannot  be  in  doubt.  Accept- 
ing the  doctrine  of  Assimilation,  he  will  be  lost  to 
himself  and  lost  to  his  surroundings.  In  taking  up 
and  carrying  aloft  the  banner  of  Jewish  Nationalism, 
he  will  be  a  blessing  to  himself  and  a  blessing  to  the 
other  nations. 


XXI 

AH  AD  HA' AM* 

A  HAD  HA'AM  is  one  of  the  very  few  Jewish  names 
which  have  broken  through  the  boundaries  of 
the  Empire  of  the  Czars  and  have  gained  a  certain 
amount  of  publicity  and  recognition  in  the  West. 
Goethe  described  the  attitude  of  the  Germans  towards 
the  French  in  the  famous  epigram: 

The  German  does  not  like  the  Frenchman, 
But  he  likes  to  drink  his  wine. 

The  attitude  of  the  European  and  American  Jews 
towards  the  Jews  of  Russia  is  the  exact  reverse  of  it. 
The  European  and  American  Jews  feel  keenly  for  their 
Russian  brethren.  They  are  deeply  interested  in 
their  fate;  they  collect,  with  unparalleled  generosity, 
enormous  sums  to  alleviate  their  distress — in  fact, 
the  whole  public  life  of  the  Jews  outside  of  Russia  is 
dominated  by  their  solicitude  for  the  Russian  Jew. 
But — his  wine  they  do  not  drink.  They  flatly  refuse 
to  accept  anything  from  him.  They  barely  know 
what  he  is  able  to  offer  them.  To  be  sure,  to  give  is 
more  blissful  than  to  take,  but  such  one-sided  gene- 
rosity creates  benefactors  and  shnorrers,  never  friends 
and  brothers.  The  Jews  of  Russia  have  spiritual 
goods  in  their  possession  of  which  the  Jews  of  the 

*  Paper  read  in  the  Course  of  Public  Lectures  at  the  Jewish 
Theological  Seminary,  New  York,  February  8,  1906.  First 
published  in  The  Jewish  Exponent,  February  16  and  23,  1906. 


400  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

« 

West  are  sorely  in  need,  and  which  would  amply 
suffice  to  compensate  their  Western  brethren  for 
their  generosity,  were  but  the  latter  willing  to  accept 
this  form  of  compensation.  And  yet  such  compensa- 
tion is  absolutely  necessary.  For  only  then  when 
the  relations  between  the  Russian  Jews  and  the  Jews 
outside  of  Russia  will  have  abandoned  the  basis  of 
one-sided  charity,  and  will  have  assumed  the  form  of  a 
mutual  exchange  of  goods,  only  then  when  their  atti- 
tude towards  one  another  will  be  wholly  pervaded  by 
the  principle  do  ut  des,  "I  give  on  condition  that  you 
give," — only  then,  and  not  before,  will  the  intercourse 
between  these  two  sections  of  Jewry  become  a  source 
of  blessing  for  both  of  them  and  prove  of  lasting 
benefit  for  the  development  of  their  common  Judaism. 
Ahad  Ha'am,  the  pseudonym  under  which  Asher 
Ginzberg  has  become  known  to  the  public,  signifies 
in  Hebrew,  "One  of  the  People."  It  was  under  this 
unpretentious  name  and  claim  that  Ahad  Ha'am 
entered  the  field  of  Hebrew  literature.  This  name 
is  now  interpreted  by  many,  with  a  slight  violation 
of  Hebrew  grammar,  as  "the  One  of  the  People." 
It  may  be  said  without  exaggeration  that  Ahad 
Ha'am  is  the  national  hero  of  Russian  Jewry,  at 
least  as  far  as  its  intellectual  elements  are  concerned. 
This  promotion  from  a  man  of  the  people  to  a  national 
hero  Ahad  Ha'am  does  not  owe  to  his  writings.  The 
people  love,  admire,  worship  their  literary  pets,  but, 
if  they  are  merely  wi iters,  never  raise  them  to  the 
height  of  national  heroes.  The  unique  position  of 
Ahad  Ha'am  in  Russian  Jewish  life  can  only  be  ac- 
counted for  by  his  personality. 


AHAD  HA'AM  iOl 


Ahad  Ha'am  typifies  the  ideal  of  the  modern 
Russian  Jew.  We  listen  with  attentive  ears  and 
trembling  hearts  to  the  terrible  physical  sufferings  of 
our  Russian  brethren.  But  we  are  utterly  ignorant 
of  those  inaudible,  yet  equally  terrible  mental 
sufferings  of  the  modern  Russian  Jew,  whose  mind  is 
the  battlefield  of  two  hostile  cultures,  whose  develop- 
ment— if  this  wild,  hazardous  zigzag  course  can  be 
called  a  development — leads  from  Heder  and  Yeshibah 
to  College  and  University,  whose  soul  is  divided 
between  Rabbi  Joseph  Caro  and  Herbert  Spencer, 
who  can  say  in  the  words  of  Rabbi  Judah  Halevi, 
though  in  a  somewhat  different  meaning,  "my  heart 
is  in  the  East,  but  I  am  far  in  the  West."  Much,  if 
not  the  whole,  of  the  restlessness  of  the  modern 
Russian  Jew,  his  impatience,  his  occasional  lack  of 
balance  and  want  of  simplicity,  which  so  often  mar 
his  wonderful  characteristics,  can  be  attributed  to 
this  gigantic  mental  struggle.  Ahad  Ha'am  is  the 
first  who  has  victoriously  emerged  from  this  struggle. 
He  is  the  first  in  whom  the  two  hostile  cultures  have 
been  brought  into  harmony,  in  whom  they  organically 
pervade  and  influence  each  other.  He  is  thoroughly 
Jewish  and  thoroughly  modern.  He  combines  the 
Ma'or  she-ba-Torah,  the  luminous  ideals  of  Biblical 
and  Talmudical  Judaism,  with  the  noblest  elements 
of  modern  civilization.  He  personifies  that  mental 
balance,  that  poise  of  mind,  that  harmony  of  soul, 
so  characteristic  of  the  old  Jewish  Talmid  Haham 
and  of  the  ancient  Greek  philosopher,  but  in  broader 
outlines  and  in  richer  colors,  being  the  harmonious 
outcome  of  manifold  and  contradicting  influences. 


402  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

This  spiritual  make-up  of  Ahad  Ha'am  assumes  a 
most  striking  aspect  through  two  traits,  closely 
related  to  each  other,  which  are  of  purely  Jewish 
origin  and,  like  everything  that  is  great  in  Judaism, 
have  their  source  and  highest  embodiment  in  the 
Prophets. 

Ahad  Ha'am  has  himself  defined  these  traits  in  a 
few  epigrammatic  sentences: 

The  prophet  is  a  man  of  truth.  He  sees  life  as  it  is,  and 
absorbs  its  impressions  with  no  personal  bias.  He  tells  what 
he  sees  exactly  as  he  sees  it,  with  no  side-calculations. 
He  tells  the  truth  not  because  he  is  willing  to  do  so,  or  be- 
cause he  has  found  out  that  he  is  obliged  to  do  so,  but  be- 
cause he  is  forced  to  do  so,  because  it  is  a  trait  characteristic 
of  his  nature,  a  trait  from  which  he  could  not  emancipate 
himself,  even  if  he  would. 

The  prophet  is  an  extremist.  He  concentrates  his  mind 
and  heart  upon  the  ideal  in  which  he  finds  the  purpose  of 
life.  He  would  subjugate  life  to  this  ideal  to  the  utmost 
limit,  without  any  remnant  whatsoever.  Within  his  soul 
he  carries  a  complete  ideal  world  in  accordance  with  which 
he  endeavors  to  reform  also  the  external  world  of  reality. 
He  recognizes  with  the  utmost  clearness  that  so  it  must  be; 
and  this  is  sufficient  for  him  to  demand,  with  all  the  power 
he  commands,  that  so  it  shall  be.  He  will  listen  to  no 
excuse,  he  will  yield  to  no  compromise,  nor  will  he  desist 
from  his  wrathful  chiding,  though  the  whole  world  rise 
against  him.1 

Ahad  Ha'am,  too,  is  a  man  of  truth  and  a  man  of 
extremes.  Truth  to  him  stands  not  only  above  his 
individual  interests,  but  also  above  the  interests  of 
his  party,  nay,  above  the  interests  of  his  people.     He 


1  Compare  the  translation  of  Ahad  Ha'am's  article  "Moses" 
in  the  Reform  Advocate,  September  23,  1905.  [See  now  Leon 
Simon's  translation,  Philadelphia,  Jewish  Publication  Society, 
1912,  p.  311  et  seq.~] 


AHAD  HA'AM  403 


looks  upon  every  compromise  as  a  half  truth,  and 
therefore  as  contradictory  to  truth.  The  public  and 
literary  activity  of  Ahad  Ha'am  is  one  continuous 
manifestation  of  this  love  of  truth.  When,  after  the 
first  anti-Jewish  riots  in  Russia,  the  best  elements  of 
Russian  Jewry  rushed  into  the  movement,  known  as 
Hibbath  Zion,  "Love  of  Zion,"  in  which  they  saw  the 
only  way  to  their  salvation,  Ahad  Ha'am,  though 
himself  devoted  to  the  cause  with  heart  and  soul, 
seeing  that  it  had  assumed  a  wrong  direction,  daringly 
checked  the  national  enthusiasm,  and,  entering  for 
the  first  time  the  arena  of  literature,  fearlessly  pro- 
claimed, "This  is  not  the  way?"1  At  a  time  when  all 
the  Hebrew  writers  and  public  men  in  Russia  pic- 
tured the  Jewish  colonies  in  Palestine  in  the  rosiest 
colors  to  inspire  the  people  with  hope  and  courage, 
Ahad  Ha'am,  after  having  investigated  the  conditions 
on  the  spot,  wrote  his  famous  "Truth  from  Palestine," 
which  is  now  commonly  recognized  as  truth,  though, 
when  it  first  appeared,  it  filled  the  whole  Jewish 
public  of  Russia  with  rage.  When  modern  Zionism 
arose  and  attempted  to  captivate  the  Jewish  masses 
by  promises  which  lacked  reality,  Ahad  Ha'am  was 
again  the  only  Jew  in  Russia,  who  raised  his  voice 
of  warning,  though  he  could  easily  forsee  that  he, 
to  whom  the  ideal  of  Zion  was  the  blood  of  his  heart 
and  the  breath  of  his  nostrils,  would  be  branded  as  a 
traitor  to  Zion.  In  fact,  almost  every  article  from 
Ahad  Ha'am's  pen  was  felt  by  the  people  as  a  slap 
in  their  faces,  and  called  forth  a  flood  of  violent 
protests.     Ahad  Ha'am  may  be  compared  in  this  re- 


1  Lo  ze  ha-derekh,  the  tide  of  his  first  article. 


404  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

spect  with  his  countryman  Tolstoi,  with  this  important 
distinction,  however,  that  when  Tolstoi  became  a 
teacher  of  truth  he  had  long  been  the  literary  favorite 
of  his  people,  whereas  Ahad  Ha'am  began  his  career 
by  preaching  the  truth. 

Ahad  Ha'am  is  an  iconoclast,  a  destroyer  of  idols. 
Yet  he  could  never  exercise  the  powerful  moral  in- 
fluence which  now  emanates  from  him,  were  he  merely 
a  destroyer,  were  he  not  at  the  same  time  to  replace 
the  broken  idols  by  great  and  inspiring  ideals.  In 
fact,  Ahad  Ha'am's  criticism  and  pessimism  is  only 
the  reverse  of  his  lofty  idealism.  It  is  merely  because 
he  weighs  reality  in  the  balance  of  ideals,  that  he  finds 
reality  so  terribly  wanting.  With  the  same  indomi- 
table courage  and  uncompromising  spirit  with  which 
he  detects  the  negative  sides  of  life  he  untiringly  points 
to  the  heights  of  positive  idealism.  He  is — to  use 
Ahad  Ha'am's  own  expression — a  pessimist  and  an 
optimist  at  one  and  the  same  time;  only  that  his 
pessimism  attaches  to  the  present,  whilst  his  optimism 
refers  to  the  future. 

As  to  the  private  life  of  Ahad  Ha'am,  the  source 
and  touch-stone  of  man's  true  greatness,  those  who 
know  it  can  say  without  hesitation  that  it  is  in  perfect 
harmony  with  the  picture  presented  by  him  in  his 
public  activity.  To  them  the  only  epithet  which 
would  seem  best  fitted  to  sum  up  his  whole  moral 
personality  is  that  of  saintliness.  I  believe  there  is 
no  shade  of  exaggeration  or  poetical  license  in  the 
magnificent  tribute  which  was  paid  to  Ahad  Ha'am 
several  years  ago  by  the  great  Hebrew  poet  Hayyim 
Nahman  Bialik: 


AHAD  HA'AM  405 


Since  the  day   on  which  thy  light  descended  upon  us, 
We  have  beheld  in  thee  a  lion  of  truth,  a  giant  in  spirit, 
Of  true  convictions,  chaste  and  pure,  in  open  and  secret, 
Firmly  holding  his  views,  not  dependent  on  the  judgment  of 

others, 
Walking  his   lonely  path,  clear-sighted  and  energetic, 
Keeping  his  flame  alive  in  his  innermost  heart, 
Watching  with  care  God's  glimmering  spark  in  our, midst. 
And  if  ever  it  happens  that  even  in  our  generation 
Our  Holy  Spirit  still  sparkles,  revealing  itself  in  a  Jew, 
Then  it  has  never  shone  brighter  in  any  son  of  the  Golus 
Than  it  glistens  and  shines  in  thy  great  soul. 

The  biography  of  Ahad  Ha'am  contains  little  that 
will  be  deemed  unusual  by  those  who  are  familiar  with 
the  conditions  of  life  in  the  midst  of  which  the  tribe 
of  the  wandering  foot  and  weary  breast  languishes  in 
the  Empire  of  the  Czars.  Perhaps  the  only  unusual 
element  in  his  biography  is  the  fact  that  he  is  one  of 
the  very  few  who  were  born  there  on  the  sunny  side  of 
life.  For  Ahad  Ha'am  has  never  known  the  sting  of 
material  distress  which  laid  its  deteriorating  stamp 
upon  many  Hebrew  writers  of  the  last  century.  He 
was  born  in  Skvira,  a  small  town  in  the  Government 
of  Kiev,  in  the  year  1856,  of  a  wealthy  and  highly 
respected  family.  From  his  twelfth  to  his  thirtieth 
year,  in  the  course  of  eighteen  years,  he  lived,  with  a 
few  interruptions,  on  a  neighboring  estate,  which,  if 
my  private  information  is  correct,  was  leased  to  his 
father  by  Count  Ignatyev,  the  author  of  the  infamous 
"May  laws"  of  1882.  In  consequence  of  these  laws, 
which  deprived  the  Jews  of  the  right  of  residence  and 
land  tenure  outside  the  cities  and  towns,  Ahad  Ha'am 
and  his  family  were  forced  to  leave  their  estate  in 
1886  and  settled   in   Odessa.     He   started   life  as  a 


406  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

merchant,  but  abruptly  liquidated  his  business  in 
1895,  for  fear  lest  in  carrying  it  on  he  might  find 
himself  unable  to  conform  to  the  strictest  standards  of 
commercial  integrity.  Shortly  thereafter  he  founded 
the  Hebrew  monthly  review  Hashiloah,  which,  under 
his  editorship,  soon  became  the  rallying  point  of  the 
best  elements  in  Hebrew  literature.  However,  fruit- 
ful as  this  editorial  activity  was  from  the  literary 
point  of  view,  it  failed  to  satisfy  his  inner  self. 
Brought  up,  as  Ahad  Ha'am  was,  in  the  ancient 
traditions  and  ideals  of  the  Jewish  Talmid  Hahamr 
he  smarted  under  the  compulsion  of  using  his  literary 
activity  as  "a  spade  to  dig  with."  It  must,  therefore, 
have  been  a  great  relief  to  him  that  he  was  afterwards 
able  to  hand  over  the  management  of  the  Hashiloah 
to  one  of  his  disciples  and  enter  business  life  again. 
He  now  occupies  a  leading  position  in  a  large  Russian 
tea  firm,  in  which  his  faculties  as  a  business  man  are 
greatly  appreciated. 

The  mental  development  of  Ahad  Ha'am  has  its 
numerous  parallels  in  the  modern  history  of  Russian 
Jewry.  It  passed  over  the  same  wild  and  adventurous 
road  which  many  thousands  of  Russian  Jews  have 
taken,  but  very  few  have  traversed  successfully, 
without  injury  to  their  soul  or  body.  Ahad  Ha'am 
received  a  thorough  Jewish  education  after  the  old 
fashion.  As  early  as  at  the  age  of  seventeen  he  had 
covered  the  entire  Talmudic  literature,  and,  almost  a 
boy,  was  already  looked  upon  as  an  authority  on 
Rabbinical  lore.  His  studies,  however,  were  by  no 
means  confined  to  Rabbinics.  Those  who  know  him 
admire  his  stupendous  erudition  in  every  branch  of 
Jewish    learning.     The    study    of    Jewish    mediaeval 


AHAD  HA'AM  407 


philosophy  seems  first  to  have  stimulated  his  skepti- 
cism and  to  have  called  forth  a  desire  for  modern 
education.  Here,  however,  he  was  left  entirely  to 
his  own  resources.  The  only  secular  knowledge  he 
then  possessed  was  limited  to  the  Russian  alphabet, 
which  he  had  mastered  while  a  boy  of  eight,  without 
the  knowledge  and  the  consent  of  his  parents — by 
deciphering  the  signs  on  the  stores  of  his  native  town. 
He  was  thus  compelled  to  acquire  the  elements  of 
modern  education  by  self-study.  At  a  later  age  he 
went  to  Austria  and  Germany  for  a  short  time,  but  the 
limits  of  college  and  university  were  much  too  narrow 
for  him,  who  was  already  a  mature  thinker  and  scholar. 
Ahad  Ha'am  is  thus  a  regular  autodidact,  his  mental 
faculties  having  made  a  teacher  superfluous.  Apart 
from  his  Jewish  erudition,  Ahad  Ha'am's  familiarity 
with  modern  culture  is  amazing,  extending  as  it  does 
over  Russian,  German,  French  and  English  literature. 
He  masters  completely  the  philosophic  and  scientific 
thought  of  modern  Europe  and  America,  while  dis- 
playing a  special  liking  for  the  English  thinkers,  whose 
cast  of  mind,  marked  by  lucidity  and  soberness,  is  so 
much  akin  to  his  own.  He  writes  and  speaks 
several  languages,  but  the  medium  of  his  literary 
activity  is  exclusively  the  Hebrew  language,  consid- 
ered by  him  one  of  the  chief  manifestations  of  the 
Jewish  national  spirit. 

Ahad  Ha'am's  public  activity  was  pre-eminently 
devoted  to  the  Hibbath  Zion,  or  "Love  of  Zion," 
movement,  that  pre-Herzlian  form  of  Zionism,  which 
sprang  up  after  the  anti- Jewish  riots  of  1880-1881, 
manifesting  itself  concretely  in  the  colonization  of 
Palestine.     He  was  the  first  to  lay  down  the  theoreti- 


408  PAST  AND  PRESENT 


cal  foundations  of  the  new  movement,  raising  it  from 
a  limited  practical  enterprise  to  a  broad  national 
ideal.  As  a  leading  member  of  the  "Committee  for 
Granting  Relief  to  Jewish  Farmers  and  Workingmen 
in  Syria  and  Palestine,"  he  greatly  influenced  the 
practical  work  in  the  Holy  Land.  In  the  interests  of 
the  colonization  movement  he  visited  Palestine  in 
1891,  1893  and  1900,  and  each  time  presented  to  the 
public  an  unreservedly  truthful  account  of  the  state  of 
affairs  which  he  had  found  to  prevail  there.  He  was 
also  the  founder  and  guiding  spirit  of  the  Zionist 
league  Bne  Moshe,  "the  Sons  of  Moses,"  making  it 
the  executive  organ  of  his  ideals.  The  league  existed 
for  eight  years,  from  1889  to  1897.  Its  history  and 
program  were  made  known  to  the  American-Jewish 
public  a  short  time  ago.1  The  principal  leaders  of 
modern  Russian  Zionism  belonged  to  this  league,  and 
I  know  some  of  its  members  who  still  speak  of  it  with  a 
kind  of  religious  awe.  Though  not  occupying  any 
official  post  at  present,  Ahad  Ha'am  continues  to 
exert  a  powerful  moral  influence  on  the  public  life  of 
Russian  Jewry. 

Ahad  Ha'am's  literary  activity  is  the  immediate 
expression  of  his  personality  In  the  introduction 
to  the  first  volume  of  his  collected  essays  he  modestly 
declines  the  title  of  a  writer  and  describes  himself  as  a 
guest  in  the  temple  of  literature,  entering  it  only  for  a 
special  purpose  and  leaving  it  as  soon  as  that  purpose 
is  accomplished.  Ahad  Ha'am  wrote  his  first  article 
at  the  mature  age — especially  mature  in  Russia- — of 
thirty-three,  and    now    after    a    literary    activity    of 

1  Compare  the  article  of  Henrietta  Szold  in  the  Maccabaean, 
May,  1905. 


AHAD  HA'AM  409 


seventeen  years  his  essays  fill  but  three  not  very 
bulky  volumes.1  In  reading  Ahad  Ha'am's  writings 
one  perceptibly  feels  that  to  him  the  temple  of  litera- 
ture is  really — a  temple,  a  place  for  holy  service,  and 
not  a  market,  as  it  so  often  is  to  other  writers.  In 
the  course  of  his  long  literary  career,  Ahad  Ha'am  has 
never  defiled  his  pen  by  personal  polemics,  and,  while 
criticising  movements  and  ideas,  he  has  always, 
with  the  refinement  of  the  true  aristocrat,  refrained 
from  attacking  their  authors.  The  reverence  dis- 
played by  Ahad  Ha'am  for  literary  work  strongly 
reminds  one  of  the  old-fashioned  type  of  Jewish 
scholar  to  whom  writing  was  "a  work  of  the  Lord," 
performed  only  "for  the  sake  of  Heaven."  Ahad 
Ha'am  only  writes  when  he  has  something  to  say. 
He  is  always  prompted  by  some  actual  problem  of 
Jewish  life.  He  is  essentially  a  publicist,  though  he 
is  as  far  removed  from  the  ordinary  type  of  a  publicist 
as  a  while-you-wait  photographer  is  from  a  great 
painter.  His  purely  philosophical  essays  are  very 
few  in  number,  and  even  these  betray  to  the  watchful 
eye  their  inner  relation  to  actual  life. 

Ahad  Ha'am  purposely  limits  his  literary  activity 
to  Jewish  life.  But  here  his  boundaries  are  as  wide 
as  the  Jewish  Diaspora.  Nothing  Jewish  is  alien  to 
him,  whether  it  takes  place  in  Russia  or  outside  of  it. 
Whether  great  or  small,  nothing  escapes  his  vigilance. 
An  attempt  to  arrange  a  Sunday  service  in  England, 
an  address  before  the  Societe  des  Etudes  Juives  in 
Paris,  a  literary  movement  in  Germany,  a  newspaper 
utterance  in  Bulgaria,  a  speech  on  the  importance  of 

L1  A  fourth  volume  has  since  appeared.  See  later  p.  423, 
el  seq.~\ 


410  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

manure  in  Palestine — everything  is  the  object  of  his 
attention  and  comment.  But  dealing  with  the  trans- 
ient interests  of  the  day,  Ahad  Ha'am  has  an  eye  for 
their  eternal  substance.  As  the  X-rays  pass  the 
porous  materials  and  stop  only  at  solid  metals,  so  does 
Ahad  Ha'am,  with  marvelous  penetration,  strip 
every  passing  incident  of  the  accessories  of  Time  and 
Space,  and  uncover  its  lasting  significance  and  value. 
The  best  evidence  of  this  unique  ability  may  be  found 
in  the  fact  that,  although  the  literary  activity  of 
Ahad  Ha'am  extends  over  a  period  of  seventeen 
years — a  long  period  in  the  life  of  a  modern  nation, 
particularly  so  in  the  life  of  the  Jewish  nation,  with 
its  rushing  tempo  and  its  catastrophies  and  cata- 
clysms— not  a  single  one  of  his  essays  has  lost  its 
former  value  and  power  of  appeal. 

The  style  of  Ahad  Ha'am  is  famous  for  its  orginality. 
To  Ahad  Ha'am  himself,  who  does  not  claim  the  title 
of  a  professional  writer,  the  style  is  only  of  secondary 
importance,  a  medium  to  convey  the  contents. 
"Perfect  the  thought,  and  the  thought  will  perfect  the 
style"- — is  his  advice  to  Hebrew  writers.  In  fact, 
all  the  characteristics  of  his  style,  its  incomparable 
conciseness  and  lucidity,  its  terseness,  its  pithiness, 
are  the  outcome  of  this  desire  to  convey  adequately 
his  thoughts.  But  style  is  a  matter  of  taste,  and,  as 
such,  is  more  easily  experienced  than  described. 

The  Hebrew  diction  of  Ahad  Ha'am  is  also  of  a 
most  remarkable  complexion.  It  has  been  said  w.th  a 
great  deal  of  truth  that  the  Hebrew  of  Ahad  Ha'am 
is  the  best  which  has  been  written  for  the  last  two 
thousand  years.  Certain  it  is  that  Ahad  Ha'am  is 
the  creator  of  a  new  Hebrew  style  which  is  becoming 


AHAD  HA'AM  411 


more  and  more  predominant  in  modern  Hebrew 
literature.  The  basis  of  this  style  is  not  the  Biblical 
language,  which  lends  itself  more  to  narrative  and 
poetry,  but  the  language  of  the  Mishna  and  of  the 
early  Haggada.  In  reading  the  Hebrew  of  Ahad 
Ha'am,  we  feel  ourselves  transported  into  the  midst 
of  those  deep-minded  and  big-hearted  Jewish  sages, 
who  pour  peace  and  harmony  into  our  souls  and  make 
us  forget  the  stinging  problems  of  modern  Judaism. 

A  few  bibliographical  remarks  concerning  Ahad 
Ha'am's  writings  may  be  of  interest  to  the  English 
reader. 

Ahad  Ha'am's  essays — his  literary  work  is  practi- 
cally limited  to  essays — appeared  orginally  in  news- 
papers and  reviews.  The  first  volume  of  collected 
essays  was  published  in  1895  and  has  now  been 
issued  in  a  third  edition.  A  second  volume  appeared 
in  1902;  a  third  volume  in  1904.1  Many  of  his 
essays  have  been  translated  into  several  modern 
languages.  I  know  of  German,  French,  English, 
Italian,  Russian  and  Polish  translations.  Two  years 
ago,  a  volume  of  Ahad  Ha'am's  selected  essays  was 
published  in  German  by  the  Juedischer  Verlag  in 
Berlin.2  I  am  privately  informed  that  Professor 
Masaryk,  in  Prague,3  is  interested  in  a  translation  of 
this  volume  into  Bohemian.  In  the  English  language, 
as  far  as  I  can  see,  about  ten  articles  have  been  pub- 
lished in  various  newspapers.  A  volume  of  selected 
essays  of  Ahad  Ha'am  in  English  would  be  a  most 

[1For  the  fourth  volume  see  p.  423  et  seq.j 

[2  A  second  edition  appeared  in  1913,      See  below,  p.  423.] 

[3  The  head  of  the  new  Czecho-Slovak  Republic] 


412  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

precious  contribution  to  Anglo- Jewish  letters.  It  is  a 
consummation  devoutly  to  be  wished.1 

Having  described  the  personality,  the  life,  and  the 
public  and  literary  activity  of  Ahad  Ha'am,  I  have 
only  provided  the  frame,  but  the  picture  is  still 
missing.  I  now  have  to  supply  this  picture,  i.  e.,  to 
expound  the  ideas  of  Ahad  Ha'am.  But  here  I  am 
confronted  by  an  embarras  de  richesses.  Coming  from 
the  light-headed  discussions  in  the  columns  of  our 
newspapers  to  the  weighty  writings  of  Ahad  Ha'am, 
we  feel  like  a  beggar  who  is  suddenly  transferred  into  a 
jewelry  shop,  and  who  is  anxious  to  seize  on  every- 
thing, but  does  not  know  what  to  take  first.  The 
narrow  limits  of  a  lecture  and  the  still  narrower 
limits  of  human  patience,  however,  are  a  sufficient 
guarantee  against  too  great  rapacity  on  my  part.  I 
will  content  myself  with  presenting  to  you  that  idea 
of  Ahad  Ha'am  which  is  the  centre  of  gravity  of  all 
his  thoughts,  in  fact,  as  he  himself  confesses,  is  the 
fountain-head  of  his  whole  spiritual  being — I  mean  the 
idea  of  Zionism. 

Ahad  Ha'am's  theory  of  Zionism  has  been  termed 
Spiritual,  or  Cultural,  or  Moral  Zionism.  All  these 
adjectives,  added  to  the  noun,  tend  to  mark  its  con- 
trast to  Political  Zionism,  as  created  by  Herzl.  The 
first  article  published  by  Ahad  Ha'am  contained  a 
severe  arraignment  of  the  Hibbath  Zion  movement, 
with  which  he  was  associated  as  a  most  ardent 
follower  and  leader.  Ahad  Ha'am  took  part  in  the 
first  Zionist  Congress,  convened  by  Herzl  at  Basle, 
but    immediately    afterwards,    amidst    a    torrent    of 

[8  An  English  translation  of  Ahad  Ha'am's  essays  by  Leon 
Simon  appeared  in  1912.     See  later,  p.  423,  et  seq.~\ 


AHAD  HA'AM  413 


overflowing  enthusiasm  for  Zionism,  he  placed  him- 
self outside  the  movement,  and  has  since  made  it  the 
object  of  his  uninterrupted  thorough-going  criticism. 
The  source  of  his  criticism  in  both  cases,  i.  e.,  as 
applied  to  the  pre-Herzlian  Hibbath  Zion  movement 
as  well  as  to  Herzlian  Zionism,  is  precisely  the  same.  It 
is  indicated  in  the  sentence  of  Montesquieu  which 
stands  as  a  motto  at  the  head  of  the  first  volume  of 
Ahad  Ha'am's  essays:  "There  are  certain  truths  of 
which  it  is  not  enough  to  convince  one,  but  which  one 
must  also  be  made  to  feel.'"  In  this  sentence  is  ex- 
pressed the  fundamental  idea  of  Ahad  Ha'am,  the 
evolutionist,  who  discovers  the  mainspring  of  human 
actions  not  in  cold  syllogisms  and  theories,  but  in  the 
inner  workings  of  the  human  soul,  in  instincts  and 
emotions.  "Every  belief  or  idea  leading  to  practical 
deeds — this  is  the  principle  which  Ahad  Ha'am  lays 
down  in  his  first  article — necessarily  presupposes  that 
the  attainment  of  a  certain  end  is  a  need  felt  in  our 
hearts."  "If  you  so  desire,  then  it  is  no  fairy  tale" — 
this  motto  of  Herzl's  novel  Altneuland  precisely 
coincides  with  Ahad  Ha'am's  own  convictions.  There 
is  no  aim  that  cannot  be  reached  if  it  is  but  strongly 
and  energetically  desired  by  a  nation.  Where  there  is 
a  will,  there  is  always,  and  has  always  been,  a  way: 
this  truth  is  verified  by  the  history  of  mankind  in  all 
its  phases.  A  great  aim  requires  a  great  desire;  the 
more  difficult  the  aim,  the  more  ardent  must  the  desire 
be.  Zionism  is  an  ideal,  surrounded  with  innumerable 
and  gigantic  difficulties;  therefore,  the  desire  for  it  has 
to  be  boundless  and  gigantic.  Both  the  old  Hibbath 
Zion  and  modern  Political  Zionism  neglect  this 
absolutely   indispensable   condition.     They   both   as- 


414  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

sume  that  this  desire  already  exists,  and  therefore  be- 
gin at  once  to  erect  a  national  building  upon  this 
foundation.  But  they-  are  both  mistaken.  The 
Jewish  people  at  large  do  not  desire  it,  do  not  desire 
it,  at  least,  in  proportion  to  the  loftiness  of  the 
aim.  The  overwhelming  majority  of  Zionists  are 
only  convinced  of  the  truth  of  Zionism,  but  they  do 
not  feel  it.  Every  practical  undertaking,  every 
structure  reared  on  this  foundation  will  necessarily 
collapse,  because  the  foundation  is  not  sufficiently 
strong  to  bear  it.  It  is  of  no  avail  to  attempt  to  cure 
our  national  organism  with  drugs  and  plasters,  as  long 
as  the  heart  of  the  nation  is  weak  and  cold.  He 
who  has  followed  with  some  attention  the  happenings 
of  modern  Zionism  from  its  beginning  will  be  forced 
to  admit  the  truth  of  this  pessimistic  prediction. 
Most  enterprises  in  Zionism  have  failed,  not  on 
account  of  outward  obstacles,  but  primarily  because 
the  proper  desire,  a  desire  which  does  not  shrink 
from  sacrifice,  has  been  wanting  on  the  part  of  the 
people.  There  have  been  many,  too  many  moments 
of  blazing  enthusiasm,  soon  cooling  down  to  ashes,  but 
very  little  of  that  steady  uninterrupted  hearth-fire, 
which  alone  creates  the  strength  required  for  a  great 
task. 

What  then  is  the  proper  course  to  be  pursued?  The 
answer  is  clear.  The  foundation  has  to  be  strength- 
ened. The  desire  for  the  aim,  the  source  of  all  our 
actions,  has  to  be  developed  and  transformed  into  a 
powerful  agency.  We  have  to  begin  with  tehiyyath 
ha-lebaboth,  with  "a  revival  of  the  hearts,"  by  imbuing 
them  with  the  "love  of  Zion,"  as  pre-Herzlian  Zionism 
was  called,  by  infusing  into  them  the  fervent  desire 


AHAD  HA'AM  415 


for  the  attainment  of  the  Zionist  goal.  "The  concen- 
tration of  the  Jews  in  Zion — another  fundamental 
maxim  of  Ahad  Ha'am — must  be  preceded  by  the 
concentration  of  the  hearts  of  the  Jews  in  the  love 
of  Zion."  The  ideal  of  Zion  must  once  more  become 
the  national  ideal  of  the  Jews,  as  it  had  been  down 
to  the  time  of  Jewish  emancipation,  when  it  was 
sold  for  a  mess  of  pottage — filling  their  hearts, 
shaping  their  thoughts,  stimulating  and  directing 
their  activities. 

What,  however,  are  the  means  by  which  this 
tehiyyath  ha-lebaboth  can  be  successfully  accomplished? 
The  answer  can  be  easily  forseen.  The  malady  under 
which  Zionism  labors  is  not  of  an  external,  but  of  an 
internal,  of  a  spiritual  nature.  Therefore,  the  remedy 
also  must  be  internal,  spiritual.  It  is  the  fatal  mis- 
take of  Political  Zionism  that  it  uses  nothing  but  ex- 
ternal means,  that  it  is  but  a  "Zionism  of  paper:  its 
beginning  a  program,  its  end  a  charter,  its  inside 
shares  and  stamps."  The  only  means  to  revive  the 
heart  of  the  Jewish  nation  and  prepare  it  for  the 
gigantic  task  of  Zionism  is  to  make  first  the  Jews — 
Jews,  not  negative  Jews,  who  are  Jews  only,  because 
they  are  not  allowed  to  die,  but  Jews  with  a  positive 
ideal,  for  which  they  are  ready  to  live  and  struggle. 
We  have  to  develop  all  the  spiritual  means  in  our 
possession  in  order  to  influence  the  Jewish  soul.  We 
have  to  strengthen  the  Jewish  religion,  Jewish  litera- 
ture, Jewish  history,  Jewish  art — in  short,  all  those 
manifestations  of  the  Jewish  spirit,  which  we  com- 
press into  the  one  word  "Judaism,"  or,  in  modern 
times,  into  the  two  words  "Jewish  Culture." 


416  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

An  important  factor  in  the  tehiyyath  ha-lebaboth 
is  also  the  colonization  of  Palestine.  When  the  Jewish 
heart  will  be  strong  enough  to  serve  as  the  foundation 
of  a  great  national  enterprise,  then  the  colonization  of 
Palestine  will  assume  large  proportions  and  become 
the  chief  instrument  for  carrying  out  the  ideal  of 
Zionism.  Under  the  present  conditions,  however, 
the  colonization  of  Palestine  is  chiefly  of  psychological 
value.  In  view  of  the  gigantic  dimensions  of  the 
material  distress  of  our  people,  it  matters  very  little 
whether  a  few  hundred  or  a  few  thousand  Jews  enjoy 
their  bread  and  butter  in  Palestine.  But  from  a 
psychological  point  of  view — as  a  means  to  strengthen 
the  love  of  Zion  in  the  hearts  of  the  Jews — one  well- 
established  Jewish  colony  in  the  Holy  Land  with  a 
genuine  Jewish  life  is  a  most  powerful  agency.  But 
at  the  same  time  Ahad  Ha'am,  in  consistency  with 
his  views,  is  of  the  opinion  that  one  Jewish  college  or 
one  Jewish  university  in  Palestine,  which  would  give 
form  and  expression  to  Jewish  culture,  is  of  greater 
national  importance  than  ten  or  even  a  hundred 
colonies. 

Thus  the  development  of  Jewish  Culture  becomes 
a  means — or  rather  the  means — towards  the  Zionist 
end.  But  it  is  not  only  a  means,  it  is  at  the  same  time 
an  end  in  itself.  For  the  Jewish  centre  in  Palestine 
is  only  a  frame  for  Jewish  culture;  it  is  not  the  ultimate 
goal.  Here  Ahad  Ha'am  abruptly  turns  from  the 
road  of  Political  Zionism.  It  is  his  firm  conviction 
that  Zionism  will  never  solve  the  material  problem  of 
Jewry.  With  many  anti-Zionists  he  believes  that 
even  after  the  establishment  of  a  Jewish  centre  in 
Palestine  the  overwhelming  majority  of  the  Jewish 


AHAD  HA'AM  417 


people  will  live  outside  of  Palestine.  The  immigration 
into  Palestine  will  never  exceed,  at  least  not  for  a 
period  within  the  limits  of  human  speculation,  the 
natural  increase  of  the  Jews  in  the  Dispersion.  But  on 
the  other  hand,  it  is  not  necessary  for  Zionism  to 
solve  the  material  problem,  because  this  problem  can 
be  solved — and  solved  more  easily  and  effectively — in 
other  directions.  The  material  misery  of  our  people 
is  not  due  to  the  Golus,  to  the  fact  that  they  are 
dispersed — we  certainly  have  a  larger  number  of 
Jewish  millionaires  at  present  than  we  ever  had  during 
the  period  of  our  political  independence;  it  is  due  to 
the  fact  that  the  majority  of  our  people  is  concentrated 
in  the  land  of  the  Czar.  The  abolition  of  the  Pale  of 
Settlement  in  Russia,  or  the  distribution  of  the  Rus- 
sian Jews  over  the  globe,  will  do  more  towards  alleviat- 
ing Jewish  material  distress  than  the  establishment  of 
a  Jewish  centre  in  Palestine.  On  the  other  hand 
Zionism — and  only  Zionism — is  able  to  solve  the 
spiritual  Jewish  problem,  the  problem  of  Judaism,  or, 
what  is  identical  with  it,  the  problem  of  Jewish  Cul- 
ture. 

The  views  of  Ahad  Ha'amon  Jewish  Culture  as  the 
fundamental  problem  and  ultimate  goal  of  our  national 
life  represent  the  broadest  and  deepest  that  has  ever 
been  expressed  on  this  subject,  perhaps  the  broadest 
and  deepest  that  has  been  expressed  by  Ahad  Ha'am 
himself  on  any  subject.  I  am  compelled  to  limit 
myself  to  the  main  outlines. 

The  strongest  bond  that  connects  the  individual 
members  of  a  civilized  nation  is  not  the  State,  but 
its  national  culture,  comprehending  in  its  broadest 
sense  the  manner  of  living,  the  mode  of  thinking,  the 


418  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

language,  literature,  art,  and  all  similar  manifestations 
of  the  national  spirit.  The  Englishman  in  the 
Transvaal  and  the  Englishman  in  Canada  are  not 
united  nearly  as  strongly  by  the  solidarity  of  their 
political  interests — which  are  different  in  the  different 
parts  of  the  British  Empire — as  they  are  by  the  spirit- 
ual ties  of  a  common  culture.  The  Germans  in 
Austria  feel  themselves  inwardly  nearer  to  the  Ger- 
mans in  Germany  than  to  the  Hungarians  with  whom 
they  are  politically  united.  The  members  of  politi- 
cally dependent  nationalities  are  bound  to  one 
another  almost  exclusively  by  the  ties  of  culture,  as, 
e.  g.,  the  Poles,  the  Czechs,  and  the  like.  During  the 
two  thousand  years  of  the  Dispersion  the  Jews  were 
held  together  by  means  of  their  national  culture, 
which  was  pre-eminently,  but  by  no  means  exclusively, 
religious.  The  downtrodden  Schutzjude  in  Germany 
and  the  powerful  King  of  the  Chazars,  the  proud 
vizier  of  Spain  and  the  destitute  beggar  in  Bagdad 
were  one  in  spirit  and  sentiment.  Though  scattered  all 
over  the  world,  the  Jews  were  one  people,  one  strong 
organism.  This  solidarity  was  broken  up  by  Jewish 
emancipation.  The  Jews  joined  the  cultures  of  the 
nations  among  whom  they  live,  and  the  culture  of 
Judaism  was  left  to  its  own  fate.  The  greatest  talents, 
the  noblest  minds  of  Jewry  went  to  enrich  the  already 
rich  spiritual  treasuries  of  the  other  nations,  while  our 
own  treasury  became  emptier  from  day  to  day. 

Our  nation  has  only  expenditures,  but  no  income.  It 
scatters  the  sparks  of  its  genius  in  all  directions.  It  con- 
stantly increases  the  wealth  and  glory  of  its  enemies  and 
oppressors,  but  itself  derives  no  benefit  from  its  labor.     Our 


AHAD  HA'AM  419 


national  treasury  is  not  swelled  by  the  achievements  of  the 
great  talents  which  it  produces  by  its  own  strength. 

Even  the  religion  of  Judaism,  the  last  bulwark  of  the 
unity  of  Israel,  has,  as  a  result  of  Jewish  emancipation, 
been  fashioned  after  the  cultures  of  the  nations  in  whose 
midst  we  live,  and  there  is  scarcely  anything  in 
common  between  a  Reform  temple  in  America  and  an 
orthodox  synagogue  in  Russia. 

Thus  the  Jewish  nation  has  been  split  up  into  a 
number  of  fragments  which  have  nothing  to  do  with 
one  another.  They  differ  in  their  thoughts,  their 
sentiments,  their  habits,  their  aspirations,  their 
ideals.  Only  sometimes  the  dim  racial  feeling  is 
aroused  in  them  by  external  persecutions,  and  the 
alliance  between  the  Jews  of  different  countries — one  is 
vividly  reminded  of  the  old  barbaric  Asiatic  rite — 
is  only  cemented  through  blood.  The  ties  between 
the  different  sections  of  Jewry  will  necessarily  be 
loosened  more  and  more,  and  the  disconnected  parts — 
and  with  them  the  Jewish  nation — will  be  easily  and 
completely  absorbed. 

This  danger  can  only  be  averted  by  one  means:  by 
creating  a  common  culture  which  would  once  more 
unite  the  hearts  of  the  Jews  and  make  of  them  one 
internally  connected  national  organism.  This  culture, 
however,  cannot  be  established  in  the  lands  of  the 
Exile  where  we  are  in  the  minority,  and  where,  being 
unable  to  shut  ourselves  up  in  a  spiritual  ghetto  as 
were  our  forefathers,  the  influences  of  the  surrounding 
civilizations  prevent  the  development  of  a  genuine 
Jewish  culture.  The  only  way  therefore  left  for  us 
is  to  create  a  Jewish  centre  in  Palestine,  where  our 
culture  had  its  birth  and  its  most  glorious  develop- 


420  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

ment,  where  the  Jews,  relieved  from  external  pressure, 
and  freed  from  the  crushing  spiritual  influences  of  the 
environment,  could  develop  a  culture  of  their  own. 
This  centre  will  not,  and  cannot,  comprise  all  the 
Jews  of  the  world.  It  will  not  be  a  material  centre  for 
the  Jewish  people,  but  it  will  be,  what  the  Jewish 
nation  pre-eminently  needs,  a  merkaz  ruhani,  a 
Spiritual  Centre,  which  will  focus  the  hearts  of  the 
Jews  upon  one  point,  which  will  make  of  the  Jews  all 
over  the  world  one  united  nation,  which  will  hold 
them  together,  even  as  the  magnet  holds  the  scattered 
nails.  For  this  purpose,  for  the  establishment  of  a 
spiritual  center,  it  will  be  sufficient  if  only  a  small 
part  of  the  Jews,  the  best  and  noblest  among  them — 
those  that  are  actuated  by  the  ideals  of  their  nation, 
and  not  by  their  own  individual  interests — will  settle 
in  Palestine  and  become  to  the  Jews  outside  of 
Palestine  the  living  personification  of  a  new,  vigorous, 
genuine  Jewish  life,  resting  on  the  broad  foundations 
of  human  civilization,  but  tinged  with  the  vivid  colors 
of  the  Jewish  national  spirit. 

This  ideal  of  Ahad  Ha'am  is  not  the  product  of  a 
speculative  mind,  but  has  its  analogy  in  the  past 
history  of  our  people.  When  in  the  year  538  B.  C.  E. 
Cyrus  granted  premission  to  the  Jews  to  return  to 
their  old  home,  only  42,360  took  advantage  of  this 
permission.  They  were  the  minority,  and  Palestine 
was  no  more  the  land  of  the  Jews.  But  it  once  more 
was  the  land  of  Judaism,  and  in  this  capacity  became 
the  spiritual  centre  of  the  Jews  all  over  the  world. 
It  developed  the  old  culture  of  Judaism  along  new 
lines  and  made  it  the  vital  principle  of  our  existence 
which  still  keeps  us  alive  today. 


AH  AD  HA' AM  421 


It  has  become  clear  from  the  preceding  expositions 
that  the  spiritual,  or  cultural,  or  moral  Zionism  of 
Ahad  Ha'am  differs  both  in  its  basis  and  in  its  top, 
in  its  Alpha  and  Omega,  from  the  purely  political 
Zionism,  advocated  by  Herzl.  According  to  Ahad 
Ha'am,  Zionism  must  begin  with  culture  and  end 
with  culture,  its  consummation  being  a  centre  for 
Judaism;  according  to  Herzl,  Zionism  must  begin 
with  politics  and  end  with  politics,  leading  to  the 
establishment  of  a  home  for  the  Jews.  This  difference 
is  not  merely  a  disagreement  in  personal  views,  but  a 
difference  of  two  divers  cultures.  Herzl,  the  assimi- 
lated Western  Jew,  who  was  driven  towards  Zionism 
by  external  influences,  had  only  an  eye  for  the  tangible 
appearance  of  the  Jew.  Ahad  Ha'am,  the  unalloyed 
Russian  Jew,  who  was  driven  towards — or  rather 
kept  within — Zionism  by  tradition  and  education,  saw 
also,  and  saw  first  of  all,  the  invisible,  yet  more 
valuable,  soul  of  the  Jew,  as  manifested  in  Judaism. 
From  a  philosophical  point  of  view  Ahad  Ha'amism 
is  far  superior  to  Herzlianism.  Oh  the  other  hand,  it 
must  be  acknowledged  that  the  Zionism  of  Ahad 
Ha'am  would  never,  and  could  never,  have  become 
a  national  movement  like  political  Zionism.  Ahad 
Ha'am's  pen-name  is,  after  all,  a  mere  pretense. 
He  is  not  the  spokesman  of  the  people.  He  is  only 
the  representative  of  that  dwindling  minority  of  the 
"few,"  who  will  always  find  it  difficult  to  place  them- 
selves within  a  popular  movement.  Ahad  Ha'amism 
in  its  integrity  and  totality  must  necessarily  remain 
outside  the  boundaries  of  political  Zionism,  originated 
by  Herzl.  But  as  its  counterbalance,  as  its  vivifying 
and    modifying    principle,    Spiritual    Zionism    is    the 


422  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

necessary  complement  of  Political  Zionism.  And 
were  I  to  name  the  two  men  who  have  had  the  largest 
share  in  shaping  the  destinies  of  the  modern  national 
movement,  I  would  first  mention  its  father — Herzl, 
and  right  afterwards  its  mentor — Ahad  Ha'am. 

*  Sfc  5fc 

I  have  dwelt  at  such  length  on  Ahad  Ha'am's 
theory  of  Spiritual  Zionism,  because  it  represents  the 
very  essence  of  his  views  on  Judaism,  and  is  the  focus 
from  which  all  his  other  views  and  convictions  radiate. 
But  I  would  be  sorry  were  this  to  convey  the  im- 
pression that  Ahad  Ha'am's  message  is  entirely 
confined  to  that  theory.  There  is  scarcely  a  Jewish 
problem  of  importance  which  has  not  been  touched 
upon  by  Ahad  Ha'am,  and  has  not  received  through 
his  magic  touch  a  new  and  striking  illustration. 
Among  the  problems  to  which  Ahad  Ha'am  has  given 
his  attention  there  are  many  which  are  of  special 
significance  to  the  Jews  in  America.  I  am  thinking 
at  this  moment  of  the  problem  of  the  Jewish  religion 
and  the  fascinating  light  thrown  upon  it,  at  the  hands 
of  Ahad  Ha'am,  by  the  theory  of  evolution, — a  sub- 
ject which  is  of  special  interest  in  this  country  where 
evolution  has  degenerated  into  revolution  and  de- 
velopment into  destruction.  But  it  is  not  my  in- 
tention, nor  is  it  in  my  power,  to  exhaust  all  the 
possibilities  indicated  in  the  title  of  this  lecture. 
If  this  lecture  has  had  the  effect  that  it  has  left  you 
dissatisfied  and  has  awakened  in  you  the  desire  to 
apply  for  more  information  to  Ahad  Ha'am's  own 
writings,  then  it  has  amply  achieved  its  purpose. 


XXII 
SOME  AHAD  HA'AM  PUBLICATIONS* 

THE  three  publications  indicated  in  the  footnote 
strikingly  illustrate  Ahad  Ha'am's  unique  posi- 
tion in  the  world  of  Hebrew  letters.  His  collected 
writings,  though  merely  reproducing  essays  which 
had  been  published,  read  and  discussed  previously, 
are  yet  read,  or  rather  re-read,  with  undiminished 
eagerness  by  a  constantly  growing  public.  But  Ahad 
Ha'am's  influence  is  by  no  means  limited  to  the  He- 
brew reading  world.  He  is  the  only  modern  Jewish 
writer  whose  words  find  an  echo  in  the  whole  Jewish 
Diaspora  and  penetrate  the  mysterious  and  impenetra- 
ble boundary  which  divides  Jewry  into  East  and  West. 
It  is  significant  that  the  first  German  translation,  as 
well  as  the  first  English  translation,  of  a  neo-Hebraic 
work  is  connected  with  the  name  of  Ahad  Ha'am, 
and  he  who  carefully  observes  public  Jewish  life  in  its 
practical   manifestations  will   not   fail   to   detect   the 

*  The  following  article  was  first  published  in  the  Jewish 
Quarterly  Review,  New  Series,  vol.  iv  (1914),  in  the  form  of  a  re- 
view of  the  following  three  books:  (l)  Al  parashat  derakhim  ("At 
the  Parting  of  the  Ways")-  Ahad  Ha'am's  collected  Essays 
in  Hebrew,  Volume  iv,  pp.  247.  Berlin,  1913.  8°.  (2)  Selected 
Essays  by  Ahad  Ha-' am.  Translated  from  the  Hebrew  by  Leon 
Simon.  Philadelphia,  Jewish  Publication  Society  of  America, 
1912.  pp.  347.  8°.  (3)  Ahad- Ha' am.  Am  Scheidewege.  Er- 
ster  Band.  Aus  dem  Hebraeischen  von  Israel  Friedlaender. 
Zweite  verbesserte  und  vermehrte  Auflage.  Berlin:  Juedischer 
Verlag,  1913.     viii  +  271.     8°. 


424  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

powerful,  though  silent,  share  of  Ahad  Ha'am's  ideas 
in  the  shaping  of  Jewish  reality. 

This  exceptional  character  of  Ahad  Ha'am's  literary 
activity  cannot  be  accounted  for  by  mere  literary 
merits,  greatly  and  justly  admired  as  they  are. 
The  secret  of  Ahad  Ha'am's  appeal  to  the  Jews  all 
over  the  world  lies,  so  it  seems  to  us,  in  the  fact  that 
his  formulation  of  the  Jewish  problem  is  such  as  to 
appeal  to  universal  Israel.  For  the  Jewish  problem 
had  in  modern  times  been  always  formulated  and 
handled  as  a  problem  of  Jews,  and  the  problem  of 
Jews,  depending  on  external  conditions,  was,  indeed, 
radically  different  in  the  East  and  in  the  West;  all 
that  one  section  had  a  right  to  expect  of  the  other  was 
sympathy,  at  most  charity.  But  Ahad  Ha'am's 
formulation  of  the  Jewish  problem  as  a  problem  of 
Judaism,  as  the  supreme  question  of  our  spiritual 
existence,  points  out  the  danger  which  threatens  all 
Jews  alike  and  appeals  to  the  deepest  sentiments 
which  lie  hidden  in  the  heart  of  every  thinking  Jew. 
No  wonder,  therefore,  that  the  formulation  of  the 
Jewish  problem  as  a  problem  of  the  Jewish  spirit,  or, 
as  we  say  nowadays,  of  Jewish  culture,  possesses  an 
irresistible  attraction  for  all  Jews,  irrespective  of 
origin  and  affiliations,  and  is  now  disseminated,  as 
seen  by  the  above  publications,  through  the  medium 
of  the  three  languages  which  practically  monopolize 
the  higher  literary  output  of  Jewry. 

The  fourth  volume  of  Ahad  Ha'am's  essays  is 
largely  made  up  of  reproductions  from  the  Hashiloah, 
still  the  most  representative  Hebrew  magazine,  and 
to  a  lesser  extent  from  other  periodicals.     The  only 


SOME  AHAD  HA'AM  PUBLICATIONS  425 

new  contribution  consists  in  extracts  from  papers  and 
letters  bearing  on  the  history  of  the  order  Bne  Moshe, 
which  at  one  time  played  an  important,  though 
silent,  part  in  the  development  of  the  Palestinian 
movement.  The  volume  concludes  with  a  brief  but 
helpful  analysis  of  the  essays  contained  in  all  the 
four  volumes.  It  may  be  added  that  several  of  the 
essays  in  the  fourth  volume  were  translated  into 
English  shortly  after  their  first  publication. 

As  might  well  be  expected,  the  bulk  of  the  volume 
is  devoted  to  the  Zionist  movement  in  the  large  sense 
in  which  the  author  interprets  it.  But  even  those 
who  stand  outside  the  movement  will  read  with  keen 
interest  his  article  on  "National  Education,"  or  his 
powerful,  though  cautious  indictment  of  the  Gym- 
nazium  in  Jaffa.  Those  who  admire  Ahad  Ha'am 
the  man  will  find  a  reflection  of  his  two-sided  person- 
ality, cool,  searching,  implacable,  yet  loving,  reverent 
and  benign,  in  the  beautiful,  analyzing,  yet  touching 
necrologues  on  Lilienblum  and  Lewinsky.  His  article 
on  the  Russian  revolution  (p.  103)  with  its  implacable 
logic  and  sharp-edged  sarcasm  will  be  read  today, 
after  his  prophecy  has  become  reality,  with  un- 
diminished, if  not  heightened  interest.  His  article 
on  "The  Question  Mark  of  Judaism"  indicates  that 
Ahad  Ha'am  is  a  keen  observer  of  Jewish  conditions 
in  America.  His  short  essay  on  "Impudence"  (p.  87), 
which  clothes  serious  thoughts  in  a  graceful  and  even 
playful  form,  shows  Ahad  Ha'am  as  the  master  of  the 
essay.  The  emphasis,  however,  of  the  present  volume 
lies  no  doubt  on  the  two  articles  that  stand  at  its 
head:   "The  Sovereignty  of  Reason"   and   "Between 


426  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

Two  Stools."  By  their  subject-matter  they  are  also 
the  most  interesting  to  the  readers  of  the  Jewish 
Quarterly  Review. 

"Between  Two  Stools"  indicates  the  attitude  of 
those  Jews  who  waver  between  Judaism  and  Christi- 
anity.1 The  article  is  clothed  in  the  form  of  a  criti- 
cism of  Claude  Montefiore's  Commentary  on  the 
Gospels,  and  gives  Ahad  Ha'ara  the  opportunity  to 
examine  the  cardinal  differences  between  Judaism 
and  Christianity.  His  analysis  of  the  fundamental 
principles  of  Jewish  ethics  as  contrasted  with  Christian 
ethics  is  probably  the  best  and  profoundest  contribu- 
tion to  this  momentous  subject.  The  "impersonal" 
character  of  Judaism  and  Jewish  ethics,  its  refusal 
to  accept  a  human  being  as  the  embodiment  of  the 
ideal,  the  definition  of  "altruism"  as  "inverse  ego- 
tism," the  objectiveness  of  the  Jewish  ideal  of  justice 
as  against  the  subjectiveness  of  the  Christian  con- 
ception of  love,  all  these  and  many  more  thoughts, 
scattered  throughout  this  brilliant  study,  and  uttered 
with  an  exquisite  beauty  and  lucidity  of  expression, 
show  what  a  rich  harvest  this  great  and  difficult  subject 
may  yield  when  handled  by  a  master. 

His  essay  on  "The  Sovereignty  of  Reason,"  which 
offers  an  analysis  of  the  life-work  of  Maimonides  and 
was  called  forth  by  his  700th  anniversary,  reaches 
even  more  directly  into  the  domain  of  Jewish  Science. 
By  his  vast  erudition  which  extends  over  all  branches 
of  Jewish  literature,  by  his  wide  historic  outlook,  by 
his    wonderfully    balanced    judgment    Ahad    Ha'am 

1  An    English   translation   of   this   article   by   Leon   Simon 
appeared  in  the  Jewish  Review,  London,  September,  1910. 


SOME  AHAD  HA'AM  PUBLICATIONS  427 

seems  eminently  fit  to  handle  the  tasks  presented  by 
Jewish  Science.  Surely  the  man  who  is  able  to 
interpret  the  present  in  the  light  of  the  past  ought  to 
succeed  in  making  the  past  intelligible  to  the  present. 

But  Ahad  Ha'am  has  always  fought  shy  of  this 
province,  and  his  essay  on  Maimonides  remains  the 
only  attempt  in  this  direction,  an  attempt  which 
merely  sharpens  the  edge  of  our  regret  by  revealing 
possibilities  which  are  consciously  neglected.  It  is 
no  exaggeration  to  say  that  the  study  on  Maimonides 
is  one  of  the  most  brilliant  achievements  of  Ahad 
Ha'am's  pen.  All  the  great  characteristics  of  his 
mind  and  style  are  shown  to  their  best  advantage  in 
the  treatment  of  a  theme  which  has  evidently  been 
not  only  the  object  of  close  study  but  also  of  deep, 
one  might  say,  affectionate  interest.  It  is  difficult 
to  say  what  is  more  to  be  admired :  the  complete 
mastery  over  the  material,  the  profound  grasp  of 
Maimonides'  metaphysical  doctrines,  the  original 
conception  of  the  underlying  principles  of  Maimonides' 
system  of  ethics,  the  subtle  psychological  inquiry  into 
the  connection  between  the  life  and  system  of  his 
hero,  or  the  crystal-like,  one  is  tempted  to  say,  Mai- 
monides-like  lucidity  with  which  a  subject  accessible 
but  to  few  is  made  intelligible  and  even  palatable  to 
the  ordinary  Hebrew  reader. 

Though  this  is  not  the  place  for  polemics,  yet  it  is 
only  fair  to  state  that,  with  all  our  appreciation  of  the 
superior  merits  of  Ahad  Ha'am's  essay,  we  cannot 
agree  to  its  fundamental  thesis.  The  greatest 
achievement  of  Maimonides  lies,  as  Ahad  Ha'am 
indicates  by  the  title,  in  the  fact  that  he    proclaimed 


428  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

the  "Sovereignty  of  Reason,"  that  in  a  period,  in 
which  reason  was  made  subservient  to  religion,  he 
had  the  courage  to  make  religion  subservient  to 
reason  and  to  free  the  latter  from  all  external  author- 
ity. But  this  construction  ascribes  motives  to  Mai- 
monides  which  are  essentially  modern  and  therefore 
an  anachronism.  To  be  sure,  Maimonides  believed 
in  the  sovereignty  of  reason,  not,  however,  "because 
religion  is  not  above  reason,  but  beneath  it,"  but 
because  religion  is  identical  with  reason.  Maimonides 
at  no  time  doubted  and  on  many  occasions  emphatic- 
ally acknowledged  the  divine  origin  of  the  Pentateuch 
in  the  strictest  sense  of  the  word.  This  whole-hearted 
unquestioning  acceptance,  by  a  man  of  Maimonides' 
critical  turn  of  mind,  of  a  dogma  which  today  is  the 
first  target  of  theological  skepticism  is  in  itself 
characteristic  of  the  period  and  its  scholastic  way  of 
thinking  to  which  Maimonides  paid  his  tribute  no 
less  than  the  great  Mohammedan  philosophers, 
Alfarabi,  Avicenna,  or  Averroes.  However  this  may 
be,  the  belief,  logically  pursued,  means  not  the 
sovereignty  of  reason,  but  the  sovereignty  of  the 
divine.  That  Maimonides  was  far  more  radical  and 
far  more  successful  in  his  rationalism  than  his  prede- 
cessors is  more  the  result  of  his  pedagogic  outlook 
upon  the  Bible  which  enabled  him  to  see  in  the 
Scriptures  a  popular  manual  of  philosophy,1  and  still 
more  so  of  his  marvellous  exegetic  skill  which  made 
the  Bible  yield  Aristotelian  truths.  Maimonides  was 
ready  to  sacrifice  what  he  considered  the  outer  meaning 


[x  See  "Maimonides  as  an  Exegete,"  above,  p.  193  et  seq.] 


SOME  AHAD  HA'AM  PUBLICATIONS  429 

of  the  Scriptures  to  the  results  of  philosophy,  but 
what  his  attitude  would  have  been,  if  the  utter  in- 
compatibility between  the  Bible  and  Aristotle  had  been 
conclusively  demonstrated  to  him,  is  difficult  to  say. 
Fortunately  for  him  this  incompatibility  was  not 
and  could  not  be  demonstrated.  At  any  rate,  it  does 
not  seem  to  us  admissible  to  make  Maimonides  re- 
sponsible for  a  conception  which  lay  completely 
beyond  the  horizon  of  his  period. 

The  English  translation  of  Ahad  Ha'am  offers  a 
selection  of  essays  culled  from  the  three  Hebrew 
volumes  which  had  theretofore  appeared.  The  essays 
chosen  are  of  a  more  general  and  philosophic  character, 
while  those  of  a  more  decided  publicistic  tendency, 
particularly  the  articles  containing  Ahad  Ha'am's 
criticism  of  Political  Zionism  were  eliminated.  The 
wisdom  of  this  principle  of  selection  is  apparent,  for  it 
would  have  been  purposeless  to  offer  the  criticism  of  a 
movement  to  a  public  to  which  the  movement  itself 
is  little  more  than  a  name.  The  English  translation 
— and  only  he  who  has  tried  the  experiment  knows  the 
difficulty  of  rendering  Ahad  Ha'am's  clear-cut  and 
idiomatic  Hebrew  into  another  language — is  an 
excellent  piece  of  work.  It  is  true  to  the  language  of 
the  original  and  to  the  character  of  its  own  language.1 

The  third  publication  may  finally  be  mentioned  as 
an  indication  of  the  constant  spread  of  Ahad  Ha'am's 
influence.     The  German  edition  of  Ahad  Ha'am  is  one 


[J  Here  follow  a  number  of  criticisms  and  suggestions  which 
have  been  omitted  from  the  present  volume.] 


430  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

of  the  few  Jewish  books  in  German  which  have  lived 
to  see  a  second  edition.  Ahad  Ha'am's  essays  have 
evidently  taken  a  deep  hold  on  a  certain  section  of 
German  Jewry,  particularly  among  the  academic 
youth.  I  am  reliably  informed  that  the  Jewish 
student  societies  in  Germany  make  the  admission 
and  promotion  of  their  members — the  Jewish  societies 
follow  the  system  of  the  German  Burschenschaften — 
dependent  on  the  study  of  Ahad  Ha'am's  writings. 
The  German  translation  differs  in  its  make-up  from 
the  English.  It  limits  itself  to  selections  from  the 
first  Hebrew  volume,  except  for  the  last  essay  on 
Nietzsche  (from  the  second  Hebrew  volume)  which 
was  added  in  the  new  edition.  The  essays  selected 
are  mainly  of  a  publicistic  character,  bearing  largely 
on  the  Palestinian  movement,  for  the  Jewish  public 
in  Germany  is  far  better  acquainted  with  that  move- 
ment than  it  is  in  England  or  America.  An  intro- 
duction supplies  the  necessary  biographical  and  biblio- 
graphical data  and  offers  a  short  analysis  of  the 
principal  ideas  of  Ahad  Ha'am.  The  second  edition 
has  been  carefully  revised  by  the  translator  in  con- 
junction with  the  author. 

The  Juedischer  Verlag  promises  the  publication  of 
a  second  volume  of  Ahad  Ha'am's  essays  which  is  in 
the  course  of  preparation  by  a  different  translator.1 


f1  This  volume  has  appeared  in  the  meantime  but  has  not 
yet  reached  this  country,  owing  to  war  conditions.] 


XXIII 

RACE     AND     RELIGION* 

'  I  AHE  question  as  to  whether  the  Jews  constitute 
-^  a  racial  or  a  religious  community  deeply  agitates 
the  mind  of  every  thinking  Jew  of  today.  It  has  become 
the  Shibboleth  by  which  the  various  Jewish  parties 
are  distinguished  from  one  another.  Nor  is  it  a 
question  of  pure  academic  interest.  Like  every  real 
issue,  it  reaches  deeply  into  life  and  profoundly  affects 
all  Jewish  policies  and  activities.  It  is  necessary, 
therefore,  that  those  who  take,  or  prepare  themselves 
to  take,  an  active  interest  in  Jewish  life  should  gain 
a  clear  conception  of  this  fundamental  problem  and, 
throwing  aside  all  commonplaces  and  catchwords, 
should  arrive  at  a  well-defined  conviction  regarding 
the  character  of  the  community  whose  destinies  they 
desire  to  shape. 

In  order  to  gain  the  proper  perspective,  let  us 
first  question  our  history.  How  did  the  Jewish 
people  look  upon  itself  during  the  long  procession  of 
the  centuries  of  its  existence?  Leaving  aside  for  the 
moment  the  modern  phase  of  Jewish  history,  which  is 
after  all  a  negligible  quantity  when  compared  with 
the  long  stretch  of  ages  preceding  it,  we  cannot  hesi- 
tate as  to  the  answer.     As  far  as  our  past  is  concerned, 


*  Published  in  the  Intercollegiate  Zionist,  a  collection  of 
essays  issued  by  the  Intercollegiate  Zionist  League,  New  York, 
1910. 


432  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

the  Jews  have  never  regarded  themselves  otherwise 
than  as  a  sharply  distinguished  racial  group,  as  a  com- 
munity which  is  knit  together  not  merely  by  the  bonds 
of  faith,  but  also  by  the  ties  of  blood.  Whether  the 
Jews  are  a  so-called  pure  race,  or  whether  they  have 
experienced,  as  has  every  race  in  history,  an  influx  of 
foreign  blood,  is  a  question  which  properly  belongs 
into  the  domain  of  anthropology,  and  concerning 
which  the  anthropologists  hold  vague  and  contra- 
dictory views.  But  this  much  I  believe  will  be  ad- 
mitted by  all  that  only  very  few  human  races  have 
displayed  such  jealous  watchfulness  in  guarding  the 
purity  of  their  blood  as  have  the  Jews. 

Be  this  as  it  may,  the  whole  controversy  centering 
around  this  point  does  not  concern  us  at  this  moment. 
For  the  purposes  of  our  present  inquiry  it  is  enough  for 
us  to  know  that  the  Jews  have  always  felt  themselves 
as  a  separate  race,  sharply  marked  off  from  the  rest 
of  mankind.  The  fundamental  belief  which  bears  the 
entire  structure  of  Biblical  and  post-Biblical  Judaism 
and  the  expression  of  which  fills  to  overflowing  the 
Jewish  liturgy  and  literature  of  all  ages  is  the  con- 
viction .  that  the  Jews  are  the  common  descendants 
of  Abraham — "the  seed  of  Abraham" — through 
Isaac  and  Jacob.  Every  act  of  national  life  is  viewed 
in  the  light  of  this  common  descent.  Palestine  is  the 
land  of  the  Jewish  people  not  primarily  by  the  right 
of  conquest  or  settlement;  it  is  above  all  the  Promised 
Land,  and  it  belongs  to  Israel  as  an  inheritance,  by 
virtue  of  the  Divine  promise  given  to  Abraham  as  the 
progenitor  of  the  Jewish  race.  The  Torah  is  not  a 
doctrine  or  a  body  of  doctrines  accessible  to  all  na- 


RACE  AND  RELIGION  433 

tions,  irrespective  of  their  origin;  it  is  "the  inheritance 
of  the  congregation  of  Jacob" (Deuteronomy  xxxiii,4). 
The  attitude  of  Judaism  towards  the  non-Jew  who 
was  ready  to  adopt  it  differed  in  the  different  periods 
of  Jewish  history,  in  accordance  with  the  conditions 
of  the  age.  But  it  never  was,  as  in  other  religious 
communities,  purely  a  question  of  faith.  Proselytes 
were  seldom  solicited,  and  even  when  ultimately 
admitted  into  the  Jewish  fold  they  were  so  on  the 
express  condition  that  they  surrender  their  racial  in- 
dividuality and  merge  it  in  that  of  the  Jewish  com- 
munity. The  Canaanites  were  refused  admission 
altogether.  The  Ammonites  and  Moabites  were 
similarly  excluded, — not  from  a  religious  motive,  but 
for  reasons  that  are  intelligible  only  from  the  history 
of  the  race :  because  they  had  been  hostile  to  the  Jews 
during  their  wanderings.  The  Edomites  and  Egyp- 
tians again  were  admitted  in  the  third  generation 
when  the  racial  fusion  had  already  been  accomplished. 
The  Samaritans,  who  were  half-Jews  by  race  and  who 
were  eager  to  become  full  Jews  by  religion,  were 
rudely  repulsed  by  the  founders  of  the  second  Jewish 
commonwealth,  who  were  anxious  to  safeguard  the 
racial  integrity  of  the  Jews.  It  was  for  the  same 
reason  that  the  Jews  who  had  returned  from  Babylon 
were  required  to  produce  their  genealogical  records  in 
order  to  prove  that  they  had  maintained  the  purity 
of  the  race  while  in  Exile.  The  same  motive  prompted 
Ezra  to  demand,  and  his  followers  to  make,  the 
sacrifice,  unparalleled  in  its  severity,  of  dissolving 
the  mixed  marriages  already  contracted. 

In  post-Biblical  times  this  racial  exclusiveness  of 


434  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

the  Jews  became  even  more  accentuated.  The 
position  of  the  Talmud  is  well  known.  A  large  part 
of  the  Jewish  ceremonial  as  evolved  in  Rabbinic 
Judaism  can  only  be  explained  as  an  attempt  to 
preserve  the  racial  purity  of  the  Jewish  people.  Nor 
was  this  exclusiveness  confined  to  the  Jews  who 
lived  apart  from  the  non-Jewish  world.  The  free 
Hellenized  Jews  of  Alexandria  maintained  the  same 
attitude,  and  the  Jews  in  the  lands  of  Islam,  who  took 
an  active  and  prominent  part  in  the  affairs  of  the 
Eastern  and  Western  Caliphate,  were,  in  their  con- 
ception of  the  racial  character  of  their  community,  in 
perfect  agreement  with  their  fellow-Jews  in  the  nar- 
row and  secluded  ghettoes  of  Germany,  Italy  or 
Poland.  Any  one  who  denies  the  racial  conception 
of  Judaism  on  the  part  of  the  Jews  in  the  past  is 
either  ignorant  of  the  facts  of  Jewish  history  or  in- 
tentionally misrepresents  them. 

Thus  Judaism  or,  more  correctly,  Jewry,  as  a 
community  held  together  by  the  ties  of  blood  and 
common  origin,  is  fundamentally  different  from 
Christianity,  Islam  and  other  world  religions  which 
are  universalistic  in  their  tendency  and  address  them- 
selves to  the  whole  of  humanity,  without  regard  to 
their  racial  or  national  affiliations. 

There  are  people,  and  people  in  our  own  midst — ■ 
in  itself  a  sad  proof  of  the  extent  to  which  assimilation 
is  revolutionizing  all  Jewish  standards  and  traditions 
— who  regard  this  attitude  of  Judaism  as  narrow- 
minded  and  as  inferior  to  the  broad  universalistic 
spirit  of  Christianity  and  the  other  world  religions. 
These  people  who  look  upon  Judaism  with  the  eyes 


RACE  AND  RELIGION  435 

of  non-Jews  utterly  misjudge  the  true  character  of 
Jewish  exclusiveness.  They  forget  that  the  Jewish 
community,  while  separatistic  in  its  means,  is,  as  far  as 
its  aims  and  ideals  are  concerned,  as  broad-minded 
and  universalistic  as  any  other  group  of  humanity. 
The  Jews  wished  to  live  as  a  separate  race,  but  they 
never  wished  and  never  tried  to  live  for  themselves. 
They  conceived  it  as  their  very  reason  for  existence 
to  be  of  service  to  humanity,  to  be  "a  light  to  the 
Gentiles,"  "to  improve  the  world  through  the  King- 
dom of  the  Almighty."  The  fundamental  Jewish 
conception  of  Israel  as  a  "People  of  God,"  or  as  a 
"Chosen  People,"  implies  that  Israel  was  chosen  for  a 
task  which  far  exceeded  the  limits  of  the  Jewish  race. 
But  the  Jews  felt  that  they  could  benefit  humanity 
far  more  effectively  by  asserting  their  individuality, 
by  serving  as  a  fountain-head  whose  living  waters 
should  quicken  the  other  races,  than  by  losing  them- 
selves among  the  nations  and  be  lost  to  themselves 
and  to  the  world.  There  may  be  a  difference  of 
opinion  as  to  the  efficacy  of  either  method  to  influence 
mankind:  by  self-annihilation  or  by  self-preservation. 
But  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  modern  man  who 
has  been  weaned  from  the  hazy  cosmopolitanism  of 
the  eighteenth  century  and  has  been  taught  the  value 
of  differentiation  and  individualism  cannot  but  admire 
the  exclusiveness  of  the  Jewish  people,  maintained  at 
the  cost  of  unparalleled  suffering,  and  he  will  in  fair- 
ness admit  that  it  was  this  exclusiveness  which  has 
saved  Israel's  services  for  mankind,  while  any  attempt 
at  "broad-mindedness"  would  have  put  an  end  to  the 
Jewish  race  long  before  those  services  began. 


436  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

But  to  return  to  our  subject.  We  have  tried  to 
prove,  if,  indeed,  it  needed  any  proof,  that  during 
the  entire  course  of  its  history — always  leaving  aside 
its  modern  phase — the  Jewish  people  has  jealously 
maintained  its  racial  distinctiveness.  And  yet,  did 
the  Jews  look  upon  themselves  solely  and  purely  as  a 
racial  community?  Far  from  it.  Those  who  empha- 
size the  racial  complexion  of  the  Jewish  people  in  the 
past,  to  the  exclusion  of  its  religious  character,  make 
themselves  guilty  of  the  same  perversion  of  facts  as 
their  antipodes  who  persist  in  denying  the  racial 
make-up  of  the  Jews  altogether.  True,  the  common 
descent  of  the  Jewish  race  from  Abraham  is  a  funda- 
mental conception  of  Judaism.  Yet  the  very  selection 
of  Abraham  to  become  the  progenitor  of  the  Jewish 
race  was  prompted,  according  to  this  conception,  by 
a  religious  motive:  "that  he  may  command  his  chil- 
dren and  his  household  after  him  that  they  shall  keep 
the  way  of  the  Lord  to  do  righteousness  and  justice" 
(Genesis  xviii,  19).  And  the  only  raison  d'  etre  of  the 
Jewish  people,  without  which  the  existence  of  the 
nation  seemed  useless  and  meaningless,  was  based  on 
the  belief,  formulated  by  the  lawgiver  and  the  prophets, 
and  finally  shared,  though  not  always  fully  understood, 
by  the  masses,  that  the  Jews  were  to  be  "a  kingdom 
of  priests  and  a  holy  people."  Only  a  short  time 
ago  at  a  meeting,  at  which  the  question  discussed  in 
this  article  formed  the  topic  of  a  heated  controversy, 
the  writer  had  an  opportunity  of  listening  to  an  elo- 
quent Yiddish  speaker  who,  in  a  fit  of  oratorical 
passion,  appealed  to  the  authority  of  all  the  great 
men  in  Israel,  "from  Moses  the  Lawgiver  down  to  the 


RACE  AND  RELIGION  437 

Gaon  of  Vilna,"  to  vindicate  his  belief  in  the 
racial  character  of  the  Jewish  community.  But 
could  any  of  the  innumerable  great  teachers  that 
Judaism  produced  between  Moses  and  the  Gaon  be 
called  upon  to  pass  judgment  on  that  racial  conception 
of  Judaism,  which  detaches  Israel  from  its  God  and 
its  Torah,  they  would  probably  fail  to  grasp  its 
meaning,  and,  if  they  did,  they  would  beyond  the 
shadow  of  a  doubt  be  no  less  horrified,  and  probably 
much  more  horrified,  by  this  view  than  by  the  doc- 
trine which  denies  the  racial  character  of  the  Jews. 

Thus  viewing  our  problem  in  the  light  of  Jewish 
history,  we  must  unhesitatingly  admit  that,  whatever 
our  present  position  may  be,  in  the  past — in  the  course 
of  3800  years  out  of  the  3900  years  of  the  existence  of 
our  people — race  and  religion  in  Judaism  were  in- 
separable. To  put  it  in  the  formula  borrowed  from 
our  mystic  literature,  "The  Holy  One,  blessed  be  He, 
the  Torah,  and  Israel  are  one,"  or,  to  quote  the  words 
of  a  modern  Jewish  scholar,  "if  we  could  imagine  for 
a  moment  Israel  giving  up  its  allegiance  to  God,  its 
Torah  and  its  divine  institutions,  the  Rabbis  would 
be  the  first  to  sign  its  death  warrant  as  a  nation."1 
A  religious  race,  i.  e.,  a  race,  or  a  nation,  whose  distin- 
guishing feature  and  whose  reason  for  existence  is 
religious,  is  the  only  correct  definition  of  the  character 
of  the  Jewish  community  as  it  presents  itself  to  us 
from  the  very  beginning  of  its  existence  down  to 
modern  times.2 


1  Schechter,  Some  Aspects  of  Rabbinic  Theology,  p.  105  et  seq- 

2  In  this  respect  the  Jews  differed  from  all  other  nations  of 
antiquity,  in  which  race  and  religion  were  similarly  interwined. 
For  whereas  in  the  case  of  the  other  nations  the  religious  interests 


438  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

In  modern  times  when  so  many  fundamental  con- 
ceptions affecting  Jewish  life  and  thought  were  com- 
pletely revolutionized  a  radical  departure  took  place 
also  in  regard  to  our  problem.  Now  for  the  first  time 
was  the  attempt  made  to  separate  these  two  elements, 
which  for  well-nigh  four  thousand  years  had  been 
inseparable,  and  to  evolve  two  diametrically  opposite 
conceptions  of  Judaism:  the  one  which  acknowledges 
only  the  religious,  and  the  other  which  recognizes 
solely  the  racial  character  of  our  community.  This 
separation  was  the  outcome  of  a  two-fold  process.  On 
the  one  hand,  the  recrudescence  of  nationalism  in 
the  non-Jewish  world  made  it  appear  dangerous  for 
the  Jews  to  admit  that  they  were  racially,  or  nation- 
ally, different  from  the  people  in  whose  midst  they 
lived.  On  the  other  hand,  the  weakening  of  religious 
conviction  and  sentiment  brought  forth  a  type  of  Jew 
who  had  lost  his  religious  affiliations,  while  the  racial 
sentiment,  which  had  gained  ground  among  Jews 
in  the  same  proportion  as  it  did  among  non-Jews, 
was  still  working  in  him  with  undiminished,  if  not  with 
intensified  force.  As  a  result,  Reform  Judaism 
arose  which  endeavored  to  strip  Judaism  of  all  its 
national  elements  and  to  preserve  it  merely  as  a 
religious  denomination.  In  opposition  to  it,  a  theory 
of  Judaism  came  into  being  which  views  Judaism 
merely  as  the  expression  of  the  Jewish  race  and 
ignores  the  whole  religious  stratification  which  has 
been  going  on  in  our  history  from  the  very  beginning. 


had  to  subordinate  themselves  to  those  of  the  race,  in  Israel  the 
interests  of  the  race  were  made  subservient — at  least  this  was  the 
demand  of  the  prophets — to  those  of  religion. 


RACE  AND  RELIGION  439 


But  we  need  only  subject  these  conceptions  to  a 
slight  analysis  to  discover  that  they  are  both  artificial. 
For  the  advocates  of  neither  conception — except  for  a 
few  irresponsible  radicals  in  both  camps — have  the 
courage  or  the  consistency  to  drive  it  to  its  logical 
consequences.  Reform  Judaism  is  still  encumbered 
with  numerous  racial  elements  which  it  dare  not  re- 
move. It  still  clings  to  a  few  shreds  of  Hebrew, 
although  religion  and  language  have  nothing  in 
common.  It  discountenances  intermarriage.  It  keeps 
"the  sign  of  the  covenant,"  which  can  only  be  justified 
as  the  symbol  of  a  community  cemented  by  blood. 
It  embraces  within  its  fold  Jews  who,  from  a  religious 
point  of  view,  cannot  be  regarded  as  such.  Racial 
Judaism  again  is  forced  to  accept  the  whole  Jewish 
past,  to  adopt  many  Jewish  traditions  and  associations 
as  well  as  the  products  of  the  Jewish  genius  which  up 
till  recently  were  pre-eminently  religious.  The  more 
thoughtful  among  the  adherents  of  this  latter  con- 
ception of  Judaism,  apprehending  the  emptiness  and 
resistlessness  of  a  purely  racial  Judaism,  openly 
advocate  the  acceptance  of  religious  Judaism  in  its 
historic  completeness  as  a  means  to  an  end.  Both 
conceptions  labor  to  undo  the  results  of  an  historic 
process  of  thousands  of  years.  Whether  these  endea- 
vors to  disrupt  the  racial  and  religious  elements 
hitherto  bound  up  with  one  another  will  ever  succeed 
no  mortal  can  tell.  But  judging  by  historic  analogy, 
we  may  safely  assume  that  it  will  take  many  genera- 
tions before  this  disruption  is  accomplished,  and  we 
may  well  question  whether  Judaism  will  survive  this 
disruption. 


440  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

What,  then,  should  be  our  attitude — I  mean  the 
attitude  of  those  who,  drawing  from  the  fountain 
of  our  history,  acknowledge  the  two-fold  character 
of  our  community  as  a  religious  race — towards  these 
two  opposing  tendencies  in  Jewish  life?  In  my 
opinion,  our  attitude  should  be  determined  by  the 
fact  that  these  tendencies,  being  the  outcome  of 
forces  whose  field  of  operation  is  outside  the  Jewish 
sphere,  are  entirely  beyond  our  control.  For  it  is 
neither  in  our  power  to  remove  Israel  from  the  midst 
of  the  nations — even  were  we  to  succeed  in  establishing 
a  Jewish  centre  in  Palestine.  Nor  can  we  put  a  stop 
to  that  relaxation  of  religious  sentiment  and  convic- 
tion which  is  by  no  means  confined  to  the  Jewish  com- 
munity. As  in  bur  whole  life  in  the  Golus,  here,  too, 
we  are  governed  by  conditions  for  which  we  are  not 
responsible  and  which  nolens  volens  we  must  accept 
and  turn  to  the  best  advantage.  Our  attitude  should, 
therefore,  be  one  of  moderation.  We  can  work  in 
harmony  with  the  adherents  of  both  religious  and 
racial  Judaism  as  long  as  they  are  not  consistent. 
After  all,  the  actions  of  men  are  not  determined  by 
formulas  and  logical  abstractions,  but  by  natural 
and  historic  forces  which,  having  slowly  ripened  out 
of  centuries  of  development,  cannot  be  easily  dis- 
carded. There  are  many  Jews  who  deny  the  racial 
or  national  character  of  Judaism  and  yet  betray  in 
their  actions  and  sentiments  a  deep  attachment  to  the 
Jewish  people  as  a  racial  community.  There  are 
others  who  deny  the  religious  basis  of  Judaism  and 
yet  in  their  whole  spiritual  make-up  bear  the  deep 
impress  of  the   Jewish   religion.     All   these  sections, 


RACE  AND  RELIGION  441 

while  differing  in  theory,  may  yet  work  harmoniously 
together  and  contribute  their  share  towards  the  pre- 
servation and  development  of  Judaism.  Those,  how- 
ever, who  push  their  abstractions  to  the  extreme, 
be  they  the  representatives  of  the  religious  theory  who 
make  a  parody  of  Judaism  by  turning  it  into  a  sect, 
or  be  they  the  fanatics  of  the  racial  conception  who 
would  put  up  a  national  literature  without  the  Bible 
and  a  national  Jewish  life  without  Jewish  traditions, 
are  equally  dangerous  to  historical  Judaism,  which 
alone  is  entitled  to  be  called  Judaism,  and  which  alone 
deserves  to  be  preserved  and  to  be  fought  for.  These 
extreme  factions,  equally  removed  from  the  highway 
of  Jewish  development,  can  never  obtain  a  permanent 
hold  on  the  Jewish  people.  "Thy  destroyers  and  they 
that  made  thee  waste  shall  go  forth  of  thee." 

I  have  purposely  refrained  from  referring  to 
Zionism  in  the  above  expositions,  because  the  problem 
under  discussion  does  not  affect  Zionism  as  such,  but 
merely  as  a  phase  of  national  Judaism  in  general. 
What  has  been  said  about  the  radical  exponents  of 
racial  Judaism  applies  with  equal  force  to  similar 
tendencies  in  Zionism.  But  while  as  a  movement 
Zionism  has  no  particular  relation  to  this  problem, 
Zionism  as  a  reality,  as  the  consummation  of  the  age- 
long Jewish  yearnings  after  a  home  in  Palestine, 
will  no  doubt  affect  our  problem  fundamentally,  as 
it  will  all  other  problems  of  Jewish  life.  What,  then, 
we  may  ask,  will  be  the  relation  between  race  and 
religion  in  a  Jewish  commonwealth,  such  as  Zionism 
hopes  and  works  for?  It  is  clear  that,  the  object 
of  our  inquiry  lying  in  the  future,  the  answer  cannot 


442  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

be  a  matter  of  argument,  but  of  personal  conviction. 
The  following,  therefore,  even  more  so  than  the 
foregoing,  cannot  claim  to  be  more  than  the  expression 
of   subjective   opinion. 

When  we  look  down  the  long  vista  of  our  history 
and  try  to  define  the  essential  characteristic  of  our 
people,  then  the  trait  which  stands  out  as  the  distin- 
guishing mark  of  the  Jewish  nation  and  which  has  re- 
mained unchanged  amidst  all  vicissitudes  is  undoubt- 
edly its  religious  sense,  the  capacity  of  penetrating  be- 
yond the  world  of  visible  phenomena  into  the  domain  of 
the  invisible,  of  grasping,  behind  the  sphere  of  mater- 
ial, tangible  existence,  the  reality  of  the  spiritual  and 
moral,- — that  sense  of  the  Jews,  which  shows  itself  in 
their  conception  of  God,  their  system  of  ethics,  their 
manner  of  living,  their  antipathy  to  form  and  figure, 
their  lack  of  monuments.  The  whole  complexion  of 
the  Jewish  people  has  altered  in  the  course  of  its 
history;  it  has  been  turned  from  a  race  of  peasants, 
to  whom  commerce  was  an  abomination,  into  a  people 
of  traders,  who  must  be  drawn  to  agriculture  by 
force.  Nearly  every  one  of  its  characteristics  has 
been  lost,  or  has  undergone  a  radical  change.  But 
the  religious  sense  has  up  till  recently  remained  part 
and  parcel  of  our  national  make-up.  If,  in  conse- 
quence, we  find  that  in  our  present  generation,  especi- 
ally in  that  section,  in  which  foreign  culture  suddenly 
clashed  with  the  elements  of  Judaism,  the  Jews,  "the 
body-guard  of  Monotheism,"  are  to  be  found  in 
appalling  numbers  among  the  exponents  of  irreligion, 
we  are  not  justified  in  looking  upon  it  as  the  mani- 
festation   of   an    inner   Jewish    sentiment,    but   as    a 


RACE  AND  RELIGION  443 

fleeting  tendency  thrown  into  our  life  by  currents  from 
without,  and  as  another  instance  of  the  disintegrating 
effect  produced  upon  our  national  characteristics 
by  the  influences  of  the  outside  world.  We  have, 
therefore,  every  reason  to  assume  that  the  establish- 
ment of  a  Jewish  centre  on  the  historic  soil  of  Judaism, 
in  which  the  Jewish  people  will  create  for  itself  normal 
conditions  of  existence  and  the  Jewish  spirit  will 
develop  free  and  unhampered,  will  enable  the  Jews  to 
recover  their  innate  characteristics  temporarily  ob- 
scured by  conflicting  influences, — first  among  them 
their  religious  sense.  Then  will  the  Jews,  a  free 
people  on  a  free  soil,  once  more  become,  as  they  were 
of  old,  a  religious  race,  a  community  cemented  and 
segregated  by  racial  characteristics,  and  serving  by 
their  religious  enthusiasm  as  a  "light  to  the  Gen- 
tiles." 


XXIV 

ZIONISM  AND  RELIGIOUS  JUDAISM* 

AMONG  the  many  romantic  events  accompanying 
the  tortuous  course  of  the  world  war  none  per- 
haps is  more  romantic  than  the  recent  declaration  of 
the  British  Government  offering  its  co-operation  to 
the  Zionists  in  the  establishment  of  a  national  home 
for  the  Jewish  people  upon  its  ancient  soil  in  Palestine. 
Bridging  the  chasm  of  twenty-five  centuries,  it  con- 
nects directly  with  the  famous  edict  of  Cyrus,  who,  on 
entering  Babylon  in  538  B.  C.,  "made  a  declaration 
throughout  all  his  kingdom,  and  put  it  also  in  writing, 
saying,  'Who  is  there  among  you  of  all  His  people? 
His  God  be  with  him,  and  let  him  go  up  to  Jerusalem 
which  is  in  Judah!'  "  (Ezra  i,  1-3).  Already  then  the 
romanticism  of  a  nation  rising  from  its  grave  was 
fully  appreciated  both  by  Jews  and  non-Jews.  "When 
the  Lord  turned  again  the  captivity  of  Zion  we 
were  like  them  that  dream,"  and  "then  said  they 
among  the  heathen,  the  Lord  hath  done  great  things 
for  them"  (Ps.  cxxvi,  1-2).  And  today,  with  our 
knowledge  of  the  unique  record  of  Jewish  martyrdom 
and  dispersion  for  the  last  two  thousand  years,  the 
sight  of  a  nation,  rising  from  political  death,  to  receive 
the  reward  for  its    unparalleled  loyalty,  must  fill  the 


*  Published  in  the  New  York  Evening  Post,  December  12, 
1917.  Reprinted  in  pamphlet  form  by  the  Zionist  Organization 
of  America. 


446  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

heart  of  Jew  and  Gentile  alike  with  sentiments  of  awe 
and    silent  wonderment. 

The  possibilities  of  a  Jewish  re-settlement  of 
Palestine,  the  land  which  forms  a  connecting  link 
between  three  continents  and  three  religions,  are 
incalculable,  whether  looked  at  from  the  political, 
economic  or  religious  point  of  view.  To  those  Jews 
who  are  deeply  rooted  in  Jewish  tradition  and  believe 
that  Judaism  has  a  religious  message  to  the  world — 
and  to  those  Christians  who  share  or  appreciate  these 
sentiments — the  latter  aspect  will  appear  of  para- 
mount consideration. 

The  religion  of  Judaism  is  indissolubly  bound  up 
with  the  homeland  of  the  Jewish  people  in  Palestine. 
This  inseparable  connection  is  the  fundamental 
premise  not  only  of  biblical  Judaism,  which  views  the 
entire  history  of  the  Jewish  race  in  the  light  of  a 
Divine  pledge  given  to  its  ancestor  Abraham,  but  also 
of  the  entire  post-biblical  tradition  of  Judaism. 
Until  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  when, 
catering  to  the  desire  for  civil  and  political  emancipa- 
tion, some  modern  Jewish  rabbis  began  to  preach  the 
dispersion  as  the  final  aspiration  of  the  Jewish  people, 
not  a  single  Jew  ever  doubted  that  the  restoration  of 
Israel  to  its  ancient  soil  was  an  indispensable  condi- 
tion for  the  realization  of  the  religious  mission  of 
Judaism. 

To  some  this  inseparable  connection  of  the  Jewish 
religion  with  "a  little  corner  in  Western  Asia"  may 
appear  narrow,  but  it  only  does  so  because  the  motive 
underlying  this  view  is  entirely  misunderstood. 
Judaism,  as  formulated  and  preached  by  its  greatest 


ZIONISM  AND  RELIGIOUS  JUDAISM  447 

religious  geniuses,  is  not  merely  a  religion  in  the 
accepted  sense  of  the  word,  a  body  of  abstract  ideas 
about  the  Invisible,  but  rather  the  embodiment  of 
these  abstract  ideas,  or  ideals,  in  concrete  human  in- 
stitutions, in  a  nation,  a  commonwealth,  a  state. 
The  fundamental  ideal  of  Jewish  prophecy,  Justice 
and  Righteousness,  presupposes  a  definite  social  order, 
such  as  can  only  be  realized  in  a  body  politic. 

But  while  in  its  form  religious  Judaism  is  thus 
circumscribed  within  national  and  territorial  limits, 
its  motives  and  ultimate  aspirations  are  essentially 
universal.  Israel's  devout  consummation  is  to  be 
a  servant  of  humanity,  and  Zion  is  conceived  as  the 
place  whence  in  an  ideal  future  the  "Word  of  the 
Lord"  will  proceed  to  the  rest  of  the  world.  At  no 
time  in  Jewish  history,  even  when  the  black  clouds  of 
hatred  and  persecution  seemed  to  swallow  this 
bright  star  of  a  general  human  hope,  was  the  Jew 
oblivious  of  this  universal  aspect  of  his  religion. 

But  in  serving  humanity  Israel  did  not  wish  to  be- 
come the  salt  of  the  earth,  which,  after  being  dissolved 
in  the  whirlpool  of  nations,  was  bound  to  lose  its  salt- 
ness.  It  rather  hoped  to  become  "a  light  to  the 
Gentiles:"  to  be  useful  to  the  world  by  retaining  and 
developing  its  separate  individuality.  The  great 
prophet  of  the  Babylonian  Captivity  who  is  the  most 
eloquent  spokesman  of  Israel's  religious  mission  to 
the  world  is  at  the  same  time  the  most  fervent  advo- 
cate of  Jewish  national  restoration.  He  hails  Cyrus, 
the  heathen  king  of  Persia,  as  "the  anointed  one  of  the 
Lord"  and  calls  with  clarion  tones  upon  his  fellow- 
Jews  in  Babylon  "to  go  up  to  Jerusalem  which  is  in 
Judah. " 


448  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

Now  not  even  the  most  enthusiastic  adherent  of 
religious  Judaism,  unless  he  be  deliberately  blind  to 
the  plainest  facts  of  reality  and  experience,  can  have 
the  courage  to  maintain  that  modern  Israel,  as  a  body, 
has  been  the  carrier  of  a  specific  religious  message  to 
the  world.  The  accomplishments  of  individual  modern 
Jews  as  part  and  parcel  of  their  respective  nations  have 
undoubtedly  been  very  great,  in  fact,  much  greater 
than  the  world  realizes — largely  for  the  reason  that 
many  of  these  Jews  have  discarded  the  label  of 
Judaism,  resembling  the  tribe  of  the  Azra  "who  die 
when  they  love."  But  whatever  their  accomplish- 
ments, they  certainly  are  not  to  be  found  in  the  sphere 
of  religion.  Modern  Jewry  has  distinguished  itself 
in  commerce,  in  industry,  in  art,  in  literature,  in 
politics,  nay,  recently  in  athletics — in  everything,  ex- 
cept in  the  domain  of  religion  which  is  the  sum  and 
substance  of  Jewish  existence. 

To  be  sure,  during  their  confinement  in  the  Ghetto 
the  Jews  have  developed  an  extraordinarily  rich  and 
intense  religious  life,  but  that  life  has  been  without 
effect  upon  the  outside  world,  and  has  scarcely  excited 
its  notice.  As  for  emancipated  Jewry  which  has 
left  the  Ghetto,  its  religious  development  is  at  a  stand- 
still. Its  religious  practice  has  almost  been  crushed 
beneath  the  pressure  of  economic  and  social  ambitions, 
and  its  religious  thought,  as  far  as  it  is  not  a  mere 
after-glow  of  the  religious  intensity  of  the  Ghetto,  is 
an  adaptation,  and  not  always  a  successful  adaptation, 
of  the  religious  ideas  of  the  environment. 

Thus  the  Jew  who  believes  in  the  religious  message 
of  Judaism  and  harks  back  to  the  traditions  of  the  ages, 


ZIONISM  AND  RELIGIOUS  JUDAISM  449 

who  shudders  at  the  prospect  of  the  "People  of  the 
Book"  making  way  for  the  "People  of  the  Ledger," 
cannot  but  look  forward  to  the  resettlement  of  the 
Jews  in  Palestine  as  the  only  hope  of  reviving  and 
realizing  the  religious  aspirations  of  the  Jewish  people. 
Assembled  on  its  hallowed  soil,  where  every  footstep 
re-echoes  the  religious  message  of  its  ancient  leaders, 
neither  shut  out  from  the  rest  of  the  world  by  the 
cramping  walls  of  the  Ghetto,  nor  yet  crushed 
or  crippled  by  the  tremendous  impact  of  non- 
Jewish  influences,  Israel  may  work  out  its  own  destiny 
and  may  become  again  a  potent  factor  in  the  religious 
life  of  humanity. 

This  hope  is  in  no  way  dimmed  by  the  fact  that,  for 
a  variety  of  reasons  which  cannot  be  considered  here, 
Zionism  has  also  a  strong  appeal  to  many  Jews  who, 
under  the  influence  of  their  environment,  have  been 
detached  from  the  religious  moorings  of  Judaism. 
Whatever  be  the  motive  of  their  allegiance  to  the 
movement,  the  effect  of  their  strivings  can  be  nothing 
but  of  benefit  to  the  future  of  the  Jewish  religion. 
For  every  endeavor  towards  a  Jewish  center  in  Pales- 
tine is  helping  to  create  normal  conditions  of  develop- 
ment for  the  religious  genius  of  Judaism. 

Zionism,  in  a  spirit  of  perfect  toleration,  makes  room 
on  its  platform  for  Jews  of  every  shade  of  religious 
opinion  and  practice,  and  it  does  so  consistently,  be- 
cause it  unites  them  all  in  one  common  goal:  the 
establishment  of  a  political,  economic  and  social  sub- 
structure for  the  untrammeled  unfoldment  of  Jewish 
spiritual  life,  even  though  the  nature  and  direction  of 
that  life  may  be  differently    conceived    by    the    dif- 


450  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

ferent  sections  of  Jewry.  Those  who  believe  in 
the  historic  continuity  of  the  Jewish  people  and 
look  upon  religion  as  a  genuine  manifestation  of  its 
national  genius  are  firmly  of  the  conviction  that,  in 
its  proper  setting,  the  religious  ideal  of  Judaism  is 
bound  to  triumph  over  the  conflicting  tendencies 
which  at  present  may  seem  to  obscure  it.  Re- 
juvenated Zion,  by  gathering  the  scattered  energies  of 
Israel,  will  prove  again  a  great  spiritual  focus  which 
will  send  out  its  vivifying  rays  to  the  stiffening  limbs 
of  the  Jewish  national  organism  throughout  the 
Diaspora,  and  will  make  Judaism  shine  forth  once 
more  as  the  luminous  bearer  of  a  religious  message  to 
humanity. 


XXV 

THE  INTERNATIONAL  ZIONIST  CONGRESS* 

TWO  powerful  tendencies  which  at  first  sight  seem 
to  contradict  but  in  reality  supplement  one 
another  characterize  the  modern  age  of  humanity: 
Internationalism  and  Nationalism.  The  enormously 
improved  means  of  communication  which  gradually 
tend  to  annihilate  distance  have  brought  the  nations 
nearer  to  one  another,  and,  weaving  around  them  the 
common  bond  of  humanity,  have  called  forth  inter- 
national movements  which  find  their  visible  and  often 
picturesque  expression  in  international  gatherings, 
or  congresses.  At  the  same  time  we  observe,  as  a 
result  of  certain  scientific  and  philosophic  doctrines, 
a  tremendous  rise  of  the  wave  of  nationalism,  a  keen 
realization  of  the  powers  and  possibilities  that  lie 
hidden  in  every  separate  national  type  and  a  passion- 
ate desire,  which  forms  the  motive  power  of  innumer- 
able movements,  to  safequard  it  against  its  enemies 
and  to  unfold  and  uplift  it  for  the  benefit  of  humanity. 
Instead  of  the  flabby,  sentimental,  academic  cos- 
mopolitanism of  the  eighteenth  century,  there  gradu- 
ally rises  into  being  and  power  the  strongly  marked, 
well  organized,  and  energetic  universalism  of  our  own 
age,  which  is  truly  international,  because  it  wishes 


*  Written  in  June,  1913,  on  the  occasion  of  the  forthcoming 
Eleventh  Zionist  Congress  at  Vienna.  It  is  published  here  for 
the  first  time. 


452  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

to  serve  humanity  through  the  natural  and  hence 
indispensable  medium  of  the  separate  nationality. 

There  are  few,  if  any,  movements  which  present 
so  remarkable  a  combination  of  these  two  great 
tendencies,  which  at  one  and  the  same  time  are  so  em- 
phatically national  and  international,  as  the  Zionist 
movement,  and  its  mouthpiece,  the  Zionist  Congress. 
From  this  point  of  view  alone,  not  to  speak  of  the 
theological,  historical,  and  economic  issues  involved 
in  this  movement,  Zionism  claims  and  deserves  the 
attention  of  every  one  who  is  fond  of  watching  the 
absorbingly  interesting,  though  pathetically  painful, 
process  of  the  transformation  of  ideas  into  realities. 

Zionism,  indeed,  is  a  modern  name  for  an  ancient 
idea,  or,  to  be  more  precise,  a  modern  ending  for  an 
ancient  name.  For  Zion,  the  poetical  designation  of 
the  capital  of  Judaea,  was  a  word  to  conjure  with  as 
early  as  in  the  days  of  the  prophets.  The  prophets 
of  Israel,  who,  like  the  Jewish  people  in  general, 
combined  a  passionate  longing  for  the  ideal  with  a 
keen  understanding  of  the  real — hence  the  contradic- 
tory charges  of  unproductive  idealism,  on  the  one  hand, 
and  of  sordid  realism,  on  the  other,  which  are  sim- 
ultaneously preferred  against  the  Jews — taught  their 
nation  to  despise  material  force  and  political  power, 
such  as  characterized  the  great  empires  of  antiquity 
which  hovered  greedily  over  little  Judaea.  But  at 
the  same  time  they  preached  that  the  abstract  moral 
ideals,  which  they  regarded  as  Israel's  life-work  and 
reason  for  existence,  could  never  be  transformed  into 
living  realities,  except  through  the  human  agency  of  a 
commonwealth,    or    a    state.     To    them    Zion    was, 


THE  INTERNATIONAL  ZIONIST  CONGRESS     453 

therefore,  that  ideal  commonwealth  which  was  a 
conditio  sine  qua  non  for  the  normal  existence  of  the 
Jewish  people.  The  Jewish  state  was  not  to  be  an  end 
in  itself,  but  merely  the  material  means  for  a  spiritual 
end,  the  political  framework  for  the  great  moral 
truths  which  were  to  be  embodied  in  definite  human 
institutions.  While  forming  the  root  and  the  fruit  of 
the  Jewish  national  genius,  the  Jewish  common- 
wealth was  yet  to  serve  humanity  as  a  whole.  Zion 
was  to  be  the  "City  of  Righteousness,"  "the  Faithful 
Town,"  whence  the  Law  and  the  Word  of  the  Lord 
was  to  proceed  to  the  whole  world. 

The  spiritual  loftiness  and  at  the  same  time  the 
practical  reasonableness  of  this  prophetic  ideal  re- 
ceived its  crucial  and  triumphant  test  when  Nebuch- 
adnezzar put  an  end  to  the  Jewish  commonwealth, 
and  all  political  illusions  of  the  Jewish  people  burst 
like  a  soap  bubble.  The  Jews  were  quick  to  learn 
their  lesson.  The  second  Jewish  commonwealth, 
founded  by  Zerubbabel  and  firmly  established  by 
Ezra  and  Nehemiah,  was  an  exact  application  to 
reality  of  this  great  prophetic  doctrine,  and  in  this 
form,  as  a  modest  material  framework  for  the  rich 
spiritual  life  of  the  nation,  Zion  proved  the  City  of 
Righteousness  whence  the  Word  of  the  Lord  actually 
proceeded  to  a  great  part  of  humanity.  The  Jews, 
while  indifferent  and  even  hostile  to  the  military 
exploits  of  the  later  de-Judaized  Hasmonaeans, 
shirked  no  sacrifice  when  the  existence  of  the  Common- 
wealth was  at  stake.  In  the  deadly  struggle  with 
overpowering  Rome,  the  Jews,  though  not  a  military 
people,  fought  as  no  other  nation  of  antiquity  had 


454  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

ever  fought.  No  Roman  triumph  perhaps  was  more 
dearly  bought  and  more  deeply  appreciated  than 
Titus'  victory  over  insignificant  little  Judaea,  and  in 
the  struggle  with  Hadrian,  when  the  Jews  made  a 
final  dash  for  liberty,  more  than  half  a  million  Jewish 
lives  were  cheerfully  sacrificed  in  the  attempt  to  regain 
their  independence.  And  when  the  Jews  had  to  yield 
to  brutal  force,  they  parted  from  their  commonwealth 
with  the  fierce  declaration  of  the  Psalmist:  "If  I 
forget  thee,  O  Jerusalem,  let  my  right  hand  forget 
her  cunning.  Let  my  tongue  cleave  to  the  roof  of  my 
mouth  if  I  remember  thee  not;  if  I  set  not  Jerusalem 
above  my  chiefest  joy!"  While  driven  from  their 
land  physically,  they  made  it  to  an  extent  scarcely 
paralleled  in  history  their  inalienable  spiritual  pos- 
session, and  they  wove  inextricably  the  hope  of  the 
Return  into  the  texture  of  their  national  consciousness. 
The  Zionist  ideal,  which  from  the  very  beginning 
was  essentially  spiritual  or  religious  in  character,  be- 
came, now  that  the  Jews  were  deprived  of  all  political 
and  territorial  agencies  and  concentrated  their  whole 
energy  on  their  religious  life,  more  and  more  metaphysi- 
cal, and  was  gradually  detached  from  reality.  There- 
turn  to  Zion  was  still  firmly  hoped  for  and  fervently 
prayed  for,  but  its  realization  was  trustfully  left  to  Di- 
vine Providence.  Yet  the  latent  energy  involved  in  this 
Zionist  sentiment  was  undiminished,  and  only  a  spark 
was  needed  to  kindle  it  into  a  blazing  flame.  Jewish 
history  records  a  considerable  number  of  so-called 
Messianic  uprisings,  in  which  the  Jews  attempted,  by 
means  which  did  not  correspond  to  reality  and  were 
in  consequence  unsuccessful,  to  regain  their  ancient 


THE  INTERNATIONAL  ZIONIST  CONGRESS      455 

home.  Nearer  our  own  age,  in  the  eighties  of  the  past 
century,  when,  under  the  influence  of  de-Judaizing 
tendencies,  the  Zionist  ideal  threatened  to  lose,  and 
partly  did  lose,  its  hold  over  a  small,  though  import- 
ant section  of  the  Jewish  people,  the  terrible  Russian 
persecutions  provided  the  necessary  motive  power 
and  called  forth  less  fantastic  and  more  effective 
attempts  which  resulted  in  the  establishment  of 
numerous  Jewish  colonies  in  Palestine.  But  the 
tranformation  of  the  dim,  and,  in  spite  of  all  counter- 
acting influences,  still  deeply  implanted  religious 
yearnings  into  a  firmly  organized,  world-wide  move- 
ment, is  an  achievement  of  our  own  generation,  and  is 
connected  with  the  name  of  one  who,  in  a  short-lived 
career  of  nine  years,  has  succeeded  to  leave  the  in- 
delible stamp  of  his  personality  upon  scattered  and 
divided  Jewry.  We  refer  to  Doctor  Theodore  Herzl. 
Doctor  Herzl  was  a  successful  German  author  and 
playwright  who,  well  provided  with  worldly  goods, 
looked  forward  to  a  happy  career  of  fame  and  pros- 
perity. He  was  one  of  those  modern  de-Judaized 
Jews  who  neither  shared  nor  even  knew  the  miseries 
and  the  hopes  of  the  Jewish  people,  who  neither  cared 
for  a  Jewish  commonwealth  nor  for  the  spiritual 
truths  which  that  commonwealth  was  to  embody. 
The  wave  of  anti-Jewish  hatred  which  surged  around 
him,  while,  as  a  representative  of  the  famous  Viennese 
paper  Die  Nene  Freie  Presse,  he  was  a  witness  of 
the  Dreyfus  scandal  in  France,  shattered  his  tran- 
quility. In  a  fit  of  strange  inspiration,  feeling, 
so  he  tells  us,  as  if  a  mighty  eagle  were  flapping  its 
wings  over  his  head,  he  wrote  in  1895  his  pamphlet 


456  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

"The  Jewish  State,"  in  which  he  proposed  the  es- 
tablishment of  a  Jewish  commonwealth  as  a  remedy  for 
the  ills  of  the  Jewish  people.  The  publication  of  this 
pamphlet  brought  for  the  first  time  to  his  notice  not 
only  the  enormous  latent  energy  which  lay  in  the 
traditional  Zionist  sentiment  still  shared  by  the  bulk 
of  the  Jews,  but  also  the  actual  attempts  made  here 
and  there  to  convert  this  sentiment  into  practical 
achievements.  He  now  became  the  centre  for  all  these 
widely  scattered  tendencies  and  strivings  which,  with 
a  statesman-like  genius,  such  as  the  Jews  have  not 
produced  for  their  own  benefit  since  the  days  of 
Jonathan  the  Hasmonaean,  he  was  able  to  whip  into 
shape  and  to  transform  into  a  mighty,  world-wide 
organization. 

When  Herzl  began  his  activity  on  behalf  of  the 
Jews,  Zionism  was  little  more  than  a  theory,  advo- 
cated and  amateurishly  handled  by  some,  ridiculed 
and  bitterly  hated  by  many,  ignored  by  most.  When, 
nine  years  later,  in  1904,  he  died  at  the  age  of  44,  a 
martyr  to  his  cause,  for  which  he  had  sacrificed  his 
health  and  his  wealth,  he  left  a  movement  behind  him 
which  was  as  wide  as  the  Jewish  Diaspora,  and  counted 
its  adherents  by  the  hundreds  of  thousands,  if  not 
by  the  millions;  possessing,  through  his  personal 
intervention,  the  sympathy  or,  at  least,  the  interest  of 
mighty  rulers  and  governments,  not  excluding  the 
Sultan  and  the  Pope,  with  a  Jewish  National  Fund, 
which,  made  up  of  the  penny  contributions  of  the 
Jewish  people — as  a  people  the  poorest  on  earth — 
now  amounts  to  over  five  million  francs,  with  a 
Jewish  Colonial  Trust  which,  though  shunned  by  all 


THE  INTERNATIONAL  ZIONIST  CONGRESS     457 

the  great  Jewish  banking  firms,  can  boast  of  more 
than  150,000  shareholders  (a  share  being  $5),  and 
with  numerous  other  agencies  and  institutions,  such 
as  are  needed  by  a  large  movement.  He  left,  above 
all,  an  ideal,  which,  having  been  enclosed  by  him  in 
the  protective  shell  of  an  organization,  became  once 
more  a  living  and  ennobling  force  in  the  life  of  the  Jews. 
One  of  the  first  measures  which  Herzl  took  to  bring 
Zionism  into  shape  was  to  issue  a  call  for  a  Zionist 
Congress.  The  non-Jewish  world  to  which  the  Jew 
is  the  same  ghost-like  puzzle  today  as  he  was  to  the 
dark  Middle  Ages  considers  Jewish  solidarity  as  one 
of  the  fundamental  characteristics  of  Jewish  life. 
This  was  to  some  extent  true  in  times  gone-by, 
although,  curiously  enough,  the  Jews  themselves 
have  always  complained  of  the  lack  of  solidarity  as 
an  essential  and  frequently  fatal  feature  of  their 
national  existence.  In  modern  times,  however,  this 
non-Jewish  estimate  of  the  Jewish  people  is  nothing 
less  than  cruel  irony.  For  there  is  no  people  which  is 
as  scattered  and  divided,  geographically,  mentally,  cul- 
turally, temperamentally,  socially,  as  are  the  Jews  of 
to-day.  The  Jews  of  the  various  countries  speak 
different  languages,  think  different  thoughts,  feel 
different  feelings,  have  different  social,  cultural,  and 
financial  standards,  and  in  many  cases  the  only 
solidarity  which  binds  them  to  one  another  is  the  soli- 
darity of  their  enemies.  No  wonder,  therefore, 
that  the  proposal  of  an  all-Jewish  Zionist  Con- 
gress was  received  with  a  loud  and  almost  unani- 
mous choir  of  passionate  disapproval  or  lofty  ridicule. 
How,,  indeed,  could  the  Jews  of  the  various  countries 


458  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

be  expected  to  meet  and  to  understand  one  another 
and  still  less  to  agree  and  to  cooperate  with  one 
another? 

To  this  belief  in  the  utter  impossibility  of  an  inter- 
national Jewish  gathering  came  another  even  more 
serious  apprehension.  The  Zionist  Congress,  while 
primarily  designed  to  arouse  the  Jews  to  the  necessity 
of  Zionism,  was,  so  its  organizer  declared,  to  unfold 
the  Jewish  problem  and  what  it  considered  to  be  the 
only  effective  remedy  frankly  and  unreservedly  before 
the  non- Jewish  world,  and  to  solicit  its  sympathy  and 
moral  support.  But  many  modern  Jews  who,  under 
their  fashionable  frock  coat,  still  retained  the  fear- 
someness  and  pettiness  of  the  Ghetto  Jew,  were 
mortally  afraid  of  baring  the  Jewish  ills  before  a  hostile 
world,  and  anticipated  untold  calamities  from  such  a 
course.  When  the  Jews  of  Munich  had  learned  that 
the  Congress  was  to  be  held  in  that  city,  they  adopted 
such  a  bitterly  hostile  attitude  that  it  was  thought 
wise  to  transfer  the  Congress  to  Basle. 

In  this  city,  on  the  soil  of  hospitable  and  liberty- 
loving  Switzerland,  the  First  Zionist  Congress  met  in 
August,  1897.  Two  hundred  and  four  delegates  from 
different  countries  heeded  the  call  of  Doctor  Herzl, 
among  them  seventy  from  Russia,  who  came  with 
the  Damocles  sword  of  a  tyrannical  and  revengeful 
government,  which  hated  Zionism  doubly  as  a  move- 
ment of  Jews  and  as  a  movement  of  liberty, 
hanging  over  their  heads.  It  was  a  solemn  and 
historic  moment  when  the  representatives  of  scat- 
tered Israel  now,  for  the  first  time  since  it  was 
driven  from  its   home    by    mighty    Rome,    met    on 


THE  INTERNATIONAL  ZIONIST  CONGRESS     459 

common  ground  to  exchange  brotherly  greetings 
and  to  voice  their  common  fears  and  hopes.  The 
keynote  of  the  Congress,  which  was  formally  opened 
by  Doctor  Herzl,  was  struck  by  Max  Nordau  in  a 
memorable  address  in  which  this  famous  writer  and 
thinker,  with  the  courage  and  frankness  that  behooves 
free  men,  and  without  a  shadow  of  that  evasive  and 
apologetic  attitude  which  had  formerly  been  displayed 
in  the  treatment  of  the  Jewish  problem,  proclaimed 
to  the  world  the  revived  hope  of  the  Jew.  The  pro- 
ceedings culminated  in  the  resolution  which  at  once 
became  and  has  since  remained  the  cornerstone  of  the 
movement:  "Zionism  aims  at  establishing  a  publicly 
and  legally  assured  home  in  Palestine  for  the  Jewish 
people." 

The  first  Zionist  Congress  was  the  initiation  of 
Zionism,  and,  in  particular,  of  the  new  Congress 
institution  within  Zionism.  Since  then  the  Zionist 
Congresses  have  steadily  grown  in  size  and  in  in- 
fluence. The  number  of  delegates  has  gradually 
risen  to  600,  although  the  size  of  the  constituency  for 
one  delegate  was  raised  from  100  to  200.  The  con- 
stantly growing  sympathy  with  the  movement  mani- 
fests itself  in  a  constantly  growing  number  of  visitors. 
who  come  from  the  four  corners  of  the  earth.  The 
enormous  importance  of  the  Zionist  Congress,  apart 
from  its  being  the  agency  of  the  Zionist  movement,  lies 
in  the  fact  that  it  is  the  only  tribune  from  which  the 
Jewish  people  as  a  people  can  make  its  voice  heard. 
The  Congress  has  met  ten  times,  seven  times  in 
Basle,  which  is  favored  by  its  central  location,  once 
in  London,  the  Hague,  and  Hamburg.     It  is  now  to 


460  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

meet  for  the  eleventh  time  in  Vienna,  the  city  in  which 
Herzl  lived  and  died. 

I  have  called  the  Zionist  Congress  international. 
In  a  way  it  is  a  misnomer.  For  it  is  the  mouthpiece 
of  an  essentially  national  movement,  and  its  member- 
ship is  made  up  of  Jews.  Yet  it  exhibits  all  the 
dazzling  variety  and  all  the  kaleidoscopic  picturesque- 
ness  of  an  international  gathering.  It  is  a  miniature 
reproduction  of  the  whole  Jewish  Diaspora,  not  only 
in  its  geographical,  but  also  in  its  cultural  and  social 
divisions.  Side  by  side  with  the  representatives  from 
Russia,  Galicia,  or  Roumania  sit  the  delegates  from 
Germany,  France,  or  England.  The  Zionist  from 
Scandinavia  or  Holland  exchanges  greetings  with  his 
colleague  from  Italy  or  Bulgaria.  The  representa- 
tives from  Canada  and  the  United  States  rub  shoulders 
with  the  envoys  from  South  Africa  and  Australia. 
The  delegate  from  far-off  New  Zealand  is  seen  hob- 
nobbing with  his  fellow  Zionist  from  Siberia,  who  trav- 
elled eighteen  days  in  an  express  train  to  carry  the 
message  of  his  distant  constituency  to  the  Congress. 
The  picturesque  representative  from  Tunis  can  be 
seen  near  the  still  more  picturesque  messengers  of  the 
mountain  Jews  in  the  Caucasus,  whose  powerful 
figures,  bristling  with  arms,  offer  so  strange  a  contrast 
to  the  present  day  over-civilized  type  of  European 
Jew. 

As  for  the  cultural  or  social  differences,  the  Congress 
offers  a  veritable  study  in  human  types  and  charac- 
ters. The  old-fashioned,  orthodox  Rabbi  with  the 
traditional  cap  and  ear  locks,  the  free-thinking  in- 
tellectual,   the    pious     Hassid,    the    unconventional 


THE  INTERNATIONAL  ZIONIST  CONGRESS      461 

radical,  writers,  journalists,  artists,  physicians,  law- 
yers, the  grave  merchant,  the  stooping  scholar,  the 
sturdy  workingman,  here  and  there  the  prosperous 
banker,  all  form  one  whole,  animated  by  one  desire, 
though  divided  in  all  else. 

Judged  from  the  linguistic  point  of  view,  the 
Zionist  Congress  is  a  veritable  Tower  of  Babel,  with 
the  vital  distinction  that  the  participants  somehow 
manage  to  understand  one  another.  Nearly  all 
European  and  some  Asiatic  languages  are  represented, 
though  those  mostly  heard  from  the  tribune  are 
German,  Russian,  English,  and  Yiddish.  But,  as 
Zionism  progresses,  the  ancient  national  tongue  of 
the  Jews,  which  Zionist  enthusiasm  has  resuscitated 
to  new  life  in  Palestine,  becomes  more  and  more  the 
favorite  vehicle  of  expression,  and  the  language  of  the 
prophets  can  often  be  heard  to  convey  the  compli- 
cated subtleties  of  modern  parliamentary  procedure. 
The  Hebrew  language  is  preferred  on  emotional 
grounds  by  all,  and  is  understood  by  a  vast  number, 
if  not  the  majority,  of  delegates. 

As  time  goes  on,  the  Zionist  Congress  is  becoming 
more  and  more  the  focus  of  international  Jewish  life. 
The  number  of  delegates  has  now  almost  trebled,  and 
the  constantly  growing  stream  of  visitors  from  all 
parts  of  the  world,  among  whom  there  are  many  non- 
Jewish  sympathizers,  supply  a  picturesque  setting  for 
what  might  well  be  called  the  Jewish  Parliament. 
Apart  from  their  principal  political  object,  the 
Congresses  now  serve  as  a  centre  for  many  Jewish 
cultural  endeavors,  such  as  the  exhibition  of  Jewish 
objects  of  art,  Jewish  music,  Jewish  literature,  and  the 


462  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

like.  No  one  who  has  ever  been  present  at  a  Zionist 
Congress  can  have  failed  to  observe  these  signs  of  a 
new  quickening  life  and  consciousness  that  pulsates 
through  the  Jewish  organism. 

It  was  pointed  out  above  that  the  Zionist  Congress 
was  conceived  and  created  by  Doctor  Herzl.  But 
what  is  far  more  to  his  credit,  it  was  Doctor  Herzl  who 
brought  the  Congress  to  its  present  maturity  and 
gave  it  the  permanence  which  is  now  everywhere 
conceded  to  it.  The  difficulties  were  tremendous. 
The  apprehension  of  the  opponents  of  Zionism,  who 
believed,  many  of  them  sincerely,  that  an  assembly 
composed  of  so  many  variegated  and  often  contra- 
dictory elements  could  only  result  in  a  public  scandal, 
was  not  without  foundation,  particularly  when  we 
remember  that  for  more  than  eighteen  centuries  the 
Jews  as  a  whole  had  ceased  to  conduct  their  national 
affairs  through  the  agency  of  a  parliamentary  insti- 
tution, and  that  the  large  number  of  delegates  who 
came  from  Russia  were  complete  strangers  to  any 
form  of  parliamentary  procedure.  Yet  all  these 
difficulties  disappeared  before  the  magic  wand  of 
Herzl,  whose  name  is  inseparably  connected  with  this, 
his  particular  creation. 

Those  who  visited  the  earlier  Congresses  will  re- 
member some  moments  when  it  seemed  that  the 
differences  of  opinion  expressed  with  characteristic 
Jewish  fervor  would  inevitably  lead  to  an  open  rup- 
ture, when  over  the  surging,  tumultuous  crowd  of 
delegates  there  rose  tower-like  the  tall  figure  of 
Herzl,  with  flashing  eyes  and  raised  hands,  and  when, 
as  by  magic,  the  tumult  was  hushed  to  silence  and  the 


THE  INTERNATIONAL  ZIONIST  CONGRESS     463 

panting  multitude  listened  with  abated  breath  to  the 
gentle  voice  of  its  beloved  leader,  warning,  admonish- 
ing, and  calling  to  unity  and  harmony.  It  was  only 
on  one  occasion,  an  occasion  of  which  the  Zionists  and 
perhaps  the  Jews  in  general  might  well  be  proud, 
when  even  Herzl's  influence  seemed  powerless.  At 
the  Sixth  Congress,  held  in  Basle  in  August,  1903, 
which,  by  the  way,  was  attended  by  592  delegates 
and  more  than  2000  spectators,  Herzl  laid  before 
the  Congress  the  proposal  of  the  British  Government 
offering  the  Jews,  through  the  medium  of  the  Zionist 
organization,  the  establishment  of  an  autonomous 
Jewish  settlement  in  its  East  African  Protectorate. 
Opinions  are  divided  as  to  Herzl's  true  motives  in 
placing  this  proposal,  which  lay  outside  the  official 
Zionist  programme,  before  the  Congress.  Some  hold 
that,  under  the  fresh  impression  of  the  terrible  mas- 
sacres in  Russia,  Herzl  realized  the  necessity  of  an 
immediate  place  of  refuge  for  his  persecuted  brethren, 
while  others  maintain  that  it  was  a  diplomatic  move 
to  make  the  Sultan  more  responsive  to  the  official 
aims  of  Zionism.  Be  that  as  it  may,  at  the  Congress 
both  Herzl  and  Nordau  gave  their  solemn  assurance 
that  the  new  proposal  was  not  meant  in  any  way  to 
displace  the  Zionist  idea,  that  East  Africa  was  merely 
to  be  a  temporary  shelter,  pending  the  establishment 
of  a  publicly  and  legally  assured  home  in  Palestine. 
Moreover,  the  resolution  which  they  laid  before  the 
Congress  did  not  demand  the  immediate  approval 
of  the  British  offer,  but  merely  the  sending  of  a  com- 
mission of  investigation. 

After  several  days  of  passionate  argument,  and  not 


464  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

without  considerable  persuasion  on  the  part  of  the 
leaders,  the  resolution  obtained  a  majority  vote,  with 
the  significant  proviso  that  the  expenses  of  the  pro- 
jected commission  were  not  to  be  borne  out  of  the 
regular  Zionist  funds.  Yet  the  Russian  delegates,  who 
hung  with  boundless  affection  and  admiration  on 
Herzl,  stood  firm.  Those  who  can  think  of  the  Jew 
only  as  a  hard-headed  trafficker,  who  is  always  anxious 
to  drive  a  bargain,  and  is  deaf  to  the  imponderable 
things  of  life,  would  probably  think  otherwise  had 
they  witnessed  the  heart-rending  signs  of  grief,  the 
scalding  tears,  the  drooping  forms,  the  passionate 
protests  of  these  Jews,  many  of  whom  had  but 
recently  passed  through  the  horrors  of  Kishineff  and 
Odessa,  but  to  whom  the  mere  thought  of  polluting 
the  purity  of  the  Zionist  ideal  by  the  sordid  considera- 
tions of  the  moment  seemed  an  unpardonable  sacri- 
lege. Their  love  of  Palestine  was  even  greater  than 
their  love  of  Herzl,  and  they  were  ready  to  abandon 
the  leader  they  idolized  should  he,  though  actuated 
by  the  purest  motives,  prove  unfaithful  to  the  flag  of 
Zion. 

Herzl  was  not  destined  to  see  the  next  Congress, 
at  which  the  British  offer  was  ultimately  declined. 
He  died  in  July,  1904,  broken-hearted,  as  many  say, 
by  the  lack  of  confidence  which  manifested  itself 
among  his  Russian  adherents  at  a  critical  moment. 
Whatever  resentment  may  have  existed  against  his 
East-African  policy  was  swept  away  by  his  tragic 
death,  and  the  love  of  Herzl,  which  in  our  prosaic  age 
has  in  a  few  years  created  the  legendary  figure  of  a 
national  hero,   is  growing  in   intensity  as  the  years 


THE  INTERNATIONAL  ZIONIST  CONGRESS      465 

go  by.  To  be  sure,  Herzl's  personal  charm  is  no  more 
there  to  blend  into  harmony  the  disharmonious 
elements  of  scattered  Jewry,  but  his  memory  exerts 
an  influence  almost  as  powerful  as  that  of  his  bodily 
presence.  What  Herzl  had  once,  with  characteristic 
modesty,  expressed  as  his  wish,  became  sad  reality. 
The  Seventh  Congress,  which  met  for  the  first  time 
without  its  leader,  passed  a  resolution  of  condolence 
and  proceeded  to  its  work.  Herzl  had  achieved  the 
greatest  triumph  of  a  leader:  he  had  succeeded  in 
detaching  his  cause  from  his  person. 

The  Zionist  movement  and  its  mouthpiece,  the 
Zionist  Congress,  represents,  like  the  Jewish  people 
itself,  an  unusual  combination  of  manifold  elements. 
It  grapples  with  an  essentially  national  problem  by 
means  of  international  agencies.  It  blends  antiquity 
with  modernity  and  passionate  idealism  with  cautious 
realism.  The  progress  Zionism  has  made  in  the 
comparatively  short  period  of  its  existence  is  remark- 
able, far  greater  than  its  enemies  or  even  its  friends 
had  anticipated.  More  than  by  concrete  gains,  more 
even  than  by  its  actual  achievements  in  Palestine, 
where  a  new  Jewish  settlement  with  new  cultural 
values  is  gradually  unfolding  itself,  can  the  progress 
of  Zionism  be  gauged  by  the  mental  revolution  which 
has  transformed  the  modern  "Hebrew,"  mostly 
ignorant  and  often  ashamed  of  the  traditions  of  his 
race,  constantly  apologizing  and  frequently  cringing, 
into  the  new  type  of  Jew  who  frankly  and  proudly 
confesses  his  Judaism;  who,  having  nothing  to  hide, 
looks  men  and  facts  squarely  in  the  face;  who,  being 
neither  blind  to  the  faults  nor  to  the  virtues  of  his 


466  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

people,  endeavors  to  eliminate  the  former  and  to 
cultivate  the  latter;  who,  equally  realizing  his  duties 
within  and  without  Judaism,  is  anxious  to  be  of  service 
to  his  nation  that  his  nation  may  in  turn  be  of  service 
to  the  world. 

To  be  sure,  there  are  Jews,  many  of  them  big- 
hearted  and  noble-minded,  and  sincerely  interested 
in  the  welfare  of  their  people,  who  are  indifferent  and 
even  hostile  to  Zionism,  largely  because  they  regard 
it  as  a  menace  to  the  position  of  the  Jews  among  the 
nations.  But  these  Jews,  and  the  non-Jews  who  may 
think  likewise,  thoroughly  misapprehend  the  funda- 
mental tendency  of  the  Zionist  movement.  The 
Jews  are  too  deeply  rooted  in  the  lands  of  their  birth 
or  abode— and  often  rooted  far  more  emotionally  than 
commercially,  not  excluding  the  lands  of  persecution 
— ever  to  allow  Zionism  to  clash  with  the  citizenship 
of  the  Jew  in  various  countries.  Already  the  prophet 
Jeremiah,  who  was  a  passionate  lover  of  Zion,  ex- 
horted the  Jewish  settlers  in  Babylon  "to  seek  the 
welfare  of  the  city  whither  they  had  been  exiled," 
and  throughout  its  history  the  Jewish  people  has 
faithfully  followed  the  precept  of  the  prophet  of 
Anatoth.  Nor  can  Palestine  physically  become  the 
gathering  place  of  the  Jews  of  the  Diaspora,  even  if 
the  miracle  of  such  a  gigantic  transplantation  could 
ever  be  conceived  and  conceded.  In  spite  of  the 
terrible  material  sufferings  to  which  the  vast  majority 
of  the  Jewish  people  is  still  subjected,  Zionism,  like  the 
great  prophetic  doctrine  imbedded  in  the  word  Zion, 
is  primarily  a  spiritual  ideal.  It  wishes  to  check 
and  to  turn  the  process  of  disintegration  which  has 


THE  INTERNATIONAL  ZIONIST  CONGRESS     467 

set  in  in  the  lands  of  the  Diaspora,  and  which,  by 
robbing  the  Jews  of  all  their  distinctive  characteristics, 
often  robs  them  of  their  traditional  virtues  and  turns 
a  people  with  an  ancient  and  glorious  culture  into  a 
colorless,  and  hence  valueless,  unit  in  the  assembly 
of  nations.  Zionism,  like  the  Zionist  ideal  of  the 
prophets,  does  not  lay  its  accent  on  material  power. 
The  Zionist  Jew  burns  with  shame  and  indignation 
when  he  realizes  that  his  people,  whose  whole  exist- 
ence, with  its  unparalleled  suffering  and  self-sacrifice, 
has  been  one  long,  passionate  protest  against  material 
power,  should  be  branded  in  the  eyes  of  the  world  as 
a  champion  of  materialism.  The  only  power  after 
which  Zionism  strives  is  the  power  for  righteousness, 
that  righteousness  which  was  first  preached  by  the 
prophets  of  Israel,  and  which,  as  they  also  taught,  is 
only  of  value  when  embodied  in  human  institutions. 
Zionism  aims  at  establishing  a  Jewish  centre  in  Pales- 
tine, where,  under  the  flag  of  a  sympathetic  govern- 
ment, his  national  culture,  harking  back  to  its  old 
historic  associations,  may  once  more  be  given  a 
chance  to  show  what  it  can  contribute  to  the  spiritual 
wealth  of  the  world. 

This  role  of  Palestine  as  a  spiritual  centre,  vague 
and  abstract  though  it  may  seem,  is  yet  no  academic 
theory,  but  was  a  palpable  reality  as  far  back  as  two 
thousand  years  ago.  In  the  centuries  preceding  the 
rise  of  Christianity  and  a  century  after  it,  Palestine 
harbored  but  a  fraction  of  the  Jewish  people.  The 
centre  in  Palestine  yielded  in  numbers  and  in  material 
significance  to  other  Jewish  settlements,  particularly 
to  the  Jewish  community  in   Egypt,  which  was  in- 


468  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

dissolubly  bound  up  with  the  Ptolemaic  Empire  and 
served  it  faithfully  in  the  highest  civil  and  military 
functions.  Yet  Palestine  was  the  spiritual  centre 
of  Judaism  in  which  the  great  Jewish  values  that 
afterwards  entered  into  the  mental  woof  of  mankind 
were  formulated  and  elaborated.  And  while  the 
Zionists  are  straining  their  efforts  to  create  the  material 
basis  for  a  Jewish  centre  in  Palestine,  they  fervently 
hope  that  it  may  prove,  as  did  its  predecessors  more 
than  two  thousand  years  ago,  to  serve  as  a  rallying 
point  for  the  scattered  endeavors  of  the  Jewish 
genius,  by  turning  its  vast  potential  energy  into 
actual  achievement,  and  once  more  to  make  the 
Jewish  people,  as  a  people,  a  valuable  member  of  the 
human  family. 


XXVI 
PALESTINE  AND  THE  DIASPORA* 

THE  Jewish  Community  of  New  York  City  is 
striving  to  become  the  Kehillah,  the  gathering 
point,  of  the  Jews  of  this  great  metropolis.  It  does 
not  wish  to  represent  merely  one  party  in  Judaism; 
it  wishes  to  include  all  Jews  who  believe  in  a  Jewish 
future,  though  they  may  vastly  differ  as  to  the  form 
which  this  future  should  take.  For  this  reason,  being 
called  upon  to  discuss,  on  the  floor  of  the  Convention 
"The  Significance  of  Palestine  for  the  Jewries  of  the 
World,"  I  shall  not  try  to  express  a  partisan  view,  but 
shall  endeavor  to  give  utterance  to  those  sentiments 
which  have  permeated  the  Jewish  people  throughout 
the  ages  and  still  permeate  the  overwhelming  majority 
of  the  Jewish  people  in  our  own  days. 

At  a  time  like  this,  when  the  stuff  that  dreams  are 
made  of  is  turning  over  night  into  solid  fact,  when 
even  the  drowsy  East  is  waking  from  its  age-long 
stupor,  and  when  that  little  corner  in  Western  Asia 
which  civilized  humanity  calls  the  Holy  Land  is 
attracting  the  attention  of  the  whole  world,  it  would 
be  an  unpardonable  omission  if  we,  the  delegates  of 


*  Address  delivered  at  the  Eighth  Annual  Convention  of 
the  Jewish  Community  (Kehillah)  of  New  York  City,  April  28, 
1917,  in  connection  with  a  resolution  in  favor  of  a  Jewish  home 
in  Palestine,  passed  on  the  same  occasion.  Published  in  the 
American  Hebrew  May  4,  1917,  under  the  title  "The  Significance 
-of  Palestine  for  the  Jewries  of  the  World." 


470  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

the  largest  Jewish  community  of  the  earth,  represent- 
ing fully  one-tenth  of  the  entire  Jewish  population 
on  the  surface  of  the  globe,  would  fail  to  give  public 
expression  to  our  love  and  our  solicitude  for  that 
land  which  even  today  is  known  among  us  as  Eretz 
Yisroel,  "the  Land  of  Israel." 

There  are  perhaps  people  in  our  midst  who  think 
that  at  this  juncture,  when  our  country  claims  the 
love  and  self-sacrifice  of  all  its  citizens,  the  time  may 
not  be  opportune  to  proclaim  our  love  for  Palestine. 
Such  people  have  a  poor  estimate  of  the  human 
heart.  They  seem  to  think  that  the  soul  of  man  is 
like  a  cheap  grinding  organ,  which  can  turn  out  but 
one  single  tune.  The  Jews  all  over  the  world  love  the 
land  in  which  they  live.  They  fight  shoulder  to 
shoulder  with  the  nations  of  which  they  form  a  part. 
They  suffer  with  them,  they  bleed  with  them,  they 
die  with  them.  The  Jewries  of  the  world  each  love 
their  own  country,  even  as  a  man  loves  his  wife. 
But  all  the  Jewries  of  the  world  love,  in  addition, 
Eretz  Yisroel,  "the  Land  of  Israel," — even  as  a  man 
loves  his  mother.  Thus,  indeed,  spoke  one  of  our 
prophets:  "Even  as  a  man  is  comforted  by  his  mother, 
so  will  I  comfort  you,  and  in  Jerusalem  shall  ye  be 
comforted."  A  son  who  is  ashamed  of  his  love  for 
his  mother  makes,  indeed,  a  poor  husband. 

We  Jews  of  America,  the  land  of  the  free  and  the 
brave,  which  stretched  forth  her  arms  to  us,  the 
sons  of  a  wandering  tribe,  are  devoted  to  this  country 
with  our  heart  and  soul,  and  we  pledge  to  her  our 
love,  our  loyalty,  our  life.  But  we  believe  that  our 
love   for  America   is   purer,   our   devotion    to   her   is 


PALESTINE  AND  THE  DIASPORA  471 

deeper,  because  at  the  same  time  we  may  love  and 
may  be  devoted  to  Palestine,  to  which  as  Jews  we 
owe  our  birth  and  the  best  that  is  in  us. 

Our  love  of  Zion  is  one  of  our  proudest  titles.  For 
no  nation  has  ever  loved  its  country  with  such  a 
surpassing  love  as  the  people  of  Israel  has  loved  the 
land  of  Israel.  Though  driven  from  Palestine 
nearly  two  thousand  years  ago,  the  Jewish  people, 
which  the  world,  knowing  it  only  on  the  surface, 
considers  a  nation  of  hard-headed,  sober-minded 
traders,  has  loved  its  ancient  land  with  an  undying 
love,  with  a  romantic  love,  with  a  love  one  reads  of 
in  books  of  fiction,  a  love  that  expects  no  reward,  a 
love  that  is  happy  in  the  privilege  of  loving. 

And  yet,  though  expecting  no  reward,  Israel 
received  the  amplest  reward  for  its  love.  For  it  is 
this  love  which  has  enabled  the  Jewish  people  to 
survive  until  this  day.  The  love  of  Eretz  Yisroel  was 
the  torch  that  illumined  the  thorny  path  of  our  people. 
It  was  the  anchor  that  kept  our  ship  from  drifting 
out  into  the  boundless  ocean.  And  whenever  the 
eternal  wanderer  seemed  to  sink  under  the  burden 
of  his  suffering,  he  looked  up  into  the  sky  and  saw 
the  light  that  shone  from  Zion,  and  with  renewed 
courage  he  continued  on  his  journey. 

This  significance  of  Palestine  for  the  Jewries  of  the 
world  is  just  as  great  today  as  it  was  ever  before. 
Those  who  believe  that  the  emancipation  of  the  Jews 
will  solve  the  Jewish  problem,  and  that  the  Messianic 
ideal  will  be  consummated  by  the  removal  of  Jewish 
disabilities,  short-sightedly  overlook  that  the  Jewish 
problem  has  two  aspects:  it  has  a  material  aspect, 


472  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

being  the  problem  of  Jewry,  and  it  has  a  spiritual 
aspect,  being  the  problem  of  Judaism. 

The  material  problem,  the  problem  of  discrimina- 
tion, suffering,  and  persecution,  must  and  will  be 
solved  by  Jewish  emancipation.  But  the  spiritual 
problem,  the  problem  of  our  higher  destiny,  will  not, 
and  cannot,  be  solved  by  Jewish  emancipation.  The 
solution  of  our  material  problem  depends  on  the 
nations  around  us;  the  solution  of  our  spiritual 
problem  depends  on  our  own  endeavors. 

Now  the  spiritual  problem  of  Jewry  may  perhaps 
be  briefly  formulated  in  these  words:  to  make  Judaism 
— not  individual  Jews,  but  our  common  Judaism — 
once  more  a  creative  force  in  the  life  of  humanity. 
It  is  the  same  problem  which  our  forefathers  for 
centuries  called  Galuth  ha-Skekina,  "The  Exile  of  the 
Divine  Presence,"  and  which  is  still  expressed  in  the 
words  of  our  ancient  liturgy,  recited  by  the  Jews  three 
times  a  day:  We-thehezenu  einenn  be-shuvkho  le-Zion 
be-rahamim,  "Let  our  eyes  behold  Thy  return  in 
mercy  to  Zion."  In  the  Dispersion  we  can  and  must 
aim  at  the  preservation  of  Judaism,  at  the  adaptation 
of  Judaism,  but  we  scarcely  dare  hope  for  a  creative 
Judaism. 

This  is  not  the  time  for  marshalling  historic  facts. 
But  I  may  be  permitted  to  quote  just  one  fact  which 
may  illustrate  the  difference  in  aspect  between  the 
spiritual  problem  of  Judaism  in  Palestine  and  outside 
of  Palestine.  The  years  1881-1882 — the  years  of 
the  Russian  pogroms,  of  which  today  we  may  happily 
speak  with  a  smile — marked  the  beginning  of  two 
simultaneous    movements    within     Russian      Jewry: 


PALESTINE  AND  THE  DIASPORA  473 

nearly  two  and  a  half  million  Jews  came  to  America ; 
less  than  one  hundred  thousand  went  to  Palestine. 

Now  we  certainly  have  no  right  to  complain  about 
all  that  has  happened  to  us  in  this  country.  We  are 
filled  with  gratitude  to  Almighty  God  and  filled  with 
gratitude  to  the  American  people  that  we  have  been 
granted  to  develop  as  freely  and  to  prosper  as  greatly 
as  we  have.  Indeed,  we  have  now  become  the  hope 
and  refuge  of  the  Jewry  of  the  world  in  its  hour  of 
distress. 

But  spiritually  our  progress  has  been  slow.  We  are 
only  now  beginning  to  emerge  from  our  state  of 
dependence,  and  for  many  years  to  come  all  our 
efforts  will  be  focused  on  the  preservation  and 
adaptation  of  Judaism  within  the  American  en- 
vironment. 

What  has  happened  in  the  meantime  in  Palestine? 
Only  a  handful  of  Jews  went  to  the  Holy  Land,  less 
than  may  be  found  on  some  of  the  Jewish  streets  on 
the  East  Side.  But  with  what  result?  In  one 
generation  they  have  managed  to  establish  forty 
Jewish  settlements,  in  which  they  have  evolved  a  new 
form  of  Jewish  self-government,  a  self-government 
without  an  army,  without  a  police,  without  jails  and 
Avithout  coercion — and  without  a  single  robbery  and 
without  a  single  murder  in  the  course  of  thirty-five 
years. 

In  the  lands  of  the  Dispersion,  the  Jews  speak 
every  language  of  civilized  and  uncivilized  humanity, 
with  one  exception — their  own  language.  Many 
attempts  have  been  made  outside  of  Palestine,  where 
there  are  hundreds  of  thousands  of  Jews  who  under- 
stand Hebrew,  to  make  the  Hebrew  language  again 


474  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

a  spoken  language.  But  all  these  attempts  have  failed. 
In  Palestine,  however,  one  man  arose,  single-handed 
—he  is  at  the  present  time  with  us  in  New  York, 
Eliezer  Ben-Yehuda — and  in  less  than  half  a  genera- 
tion he  performed  a  miracle  that  stands  entirely 
alone  in  the  annals  of  human  speech:  he  resurrected  a 
language,  which  has  not  been  spoken  for  over  two 
thousand  years,  from  the  dead,  and  thus  made  true 
the  contention  of  the  psalmist  that  strength  has  been 
ordained  out  of  the  mouths  of  babes  and  sucklings. 

In  the  lands  of  the  Dispersion  we  have  hundreds 
of  Jewish  artists,  many  of  them  prominent  in  their 
field,  and  yet  we  constantly  debate  whether  there  is 
a  Jewish  art — and  many  deny  it.  But  in  Palestine 
a  single  man  again,  Boris  Schatz,  came  and  established 
the  Bezalel,  and  laid  at  least  the  foundation  for  a 
Jewish  art. 

And  who  knows?  Palestinian  Jewry  is  only  at  the 
beginning,  or  rather  at  the  beginning  of  the  beginning. 
In  the  course  of  time  it  is  bound  to  find  itself.  It  will 
throw  off  the  shackles  of  the  Golus  and  the  influences 
of  the  Golus  which  still  fetter  its  spirit.  It  will  take 
up  the  historic  thread  where  it  was  dropped  two 
thousand  years  ago,  and  perhaps  if  not  we  then  our 
children  may  live  to  see  the  fulfillment  of  the  prophecy 
that  the  Law  shall  come  forth  out  of  Zion  and  the 
Word  of  the  Lord  from  Jerusalem. 

But  the  significance  of  Palestine  for  the  Jewries  of 
the  world  lies  still  in  another  direction:  it  is  the 
symbol  of  Israel's  unity.  We  believe  in  Akduth 
Yisroel,  in  the  unity  of  Israel.  We  speak  of  the 
Kelal  Yisroel,  the  community  of  Israel,  and  some  of 


PALESTINE  AND  THE  DIASPORA  475 

the  gentlemen  sitting  on  this  platform  have  certainly 
done  yeoman's  work  in  the  practical  realization  of  this 
great  ideal.  But  who  can  say  that  the  unity  of  Israel 
is  an  actual  unity?  Unity  means  unity  of  purpose, 
unity  of  hope;  it  means  co-operation,  give  and  take, 
equality  and  fellowship.  But  since  the  days  of  Jewish 
emancipation,  Israel's  unity  consisted  in  the  endeavor 
of  the  emancipated  half  to  give  succor  to  the  un- 
emancipated  half. 

All  the  international  organizations  in  Jewry  are 
established  for  one  purpose,  to  give  help,  but  not  to 
co-operate.  The  Alliance  Israelite  Universelle,  the 
"Jewish  Colonization  Association,"  the  Hilfsverein 
der  deutschen  Juden,  and  other  agencies  of  the  same 
category,  are  all  striving  for  emancipation,  not 
beyond  emancipation.  There  is  one  exception,  and 
that  international  Jewish  organization,  which  I  have 
no  need  to  mention,  is  devoted  to  the  realization  of  the 
Jewish  ideal  in  Palestine. 

The  Alliance  Israelite  Universelle  calls  itself  in 
Hebrew  Kol  Yisroel  Haverim,  "all  Israel  are  Com- 
rades;" its  symbol  is  a  pair  of  clasped  hands.  But 
both  the  name  and  the  symbol  misrepresent  the 
actual  relationship  between  the  various  Jewries  of  the 
world.  The  Jews  are  Ahim  le-tzareh,  "brethren  in 
distress;"  but  they  are  not  Haverim,  comrades, 
working  shoulder  to  shoulder  for  a  common  goal. 
And  their  hands  are  not  clasped.  Their  symbol 
should  rather  be  a  pair  of  hands  that  are  open :  the  one 
to  give  help,  the  other  to  receive  help.  It  is  not 
a  unity  of  happiness,  but  a  unity  of  misery;  it  is  a 
unity  of  sympathy,   in   the  orginal  meaning  of  the 


476  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

word,  which  signifies  "fellow-suffering."  In  the  dark 
middle  ages,  when  the  nations  and  the  countries  of  the 
world  were  widely  removed  from  one  another,  the 
unity  of  Israel  was  far  more  compiehensive  and  far 
more  firmly  established  than  it  is  today,  in  the  age  of 
steam,  electricty  and  aeroplanes. 

What  do  we,  the  Jews  of  America,  know  of  the 
Jews  of  the  world,  know  specifically  of  the  Jews  of  the 
eastern  part  of  the  world,  except  that  they  are 
starving?  What  do  we  know  of  the  great  Jewry  of 
Russia,  to  which  we  extend  a  helping  brotherly  hand? 
What  do  we  know  of  their  life  outside  of  the  fact  of 
their  being  hungry?  Do  we,  who  most  of  us  are  the 
descendants  of  Russian  Jewry,  know  anything  of  what 
Russian  Jewry  has  been  thinking,  and  dreaming,  and 
hoping,  and  planning,  or  of  the  great  cultural  activities 
which  are  more  vigorous  in  Russian  Jewry  than  per- 
haps in  any  other  Jewry  of  the  world? 

What  we  need  is  a  true  unity,  a  unity  based  on 
liberty,  a  unity  based  on  co-operation,  and  there  is  no 
nobler  unity  than  that  of  a  common  ideal,  the  ideal 
which  has  tonight  found  expression  on  this  platform — 
a  genuine  Jewish  life  on  a  genuine  Jewish  soil.  A 
portion  of  our  people  settled  in  the  Holy  Land  will 
prove  a  focus  which  will  gather  the  efforts  of  all  the 
Jewries  of  the  world,  and  it  will  prove  at  the  same 
time  a  power-house  which  will  send  forth  its  energies 
to  the  whole  house  of  Israel.  This,  and  only  this, 
will  be  Ahduth  Yisroel,  "unity  of  Israel,"  in  the  true 
sense  of  the  world. 

And  at  no  other  time  were  we  so  much  in  need 
of  this  unity  as  we  are  today,  when  the  process  of 


PALESTINE  AND  THE  DIASPORA  477 

emancipation  which  is  the  basis  for  all  our  interna- 
tional Jewish  endeavors  is  nearing  its  completion.  A 
great  and  happy  family  event  is  taking  place  in  the 
household  of  Israel.  It  is  the  marriage  of  our  big 
sister,  the  Jewry  of  Russia,  to  the  great  Russian 
people.  Before  the  period  of  emancipation,  the 
household  of  Israel  was  like  a  large  family  of  sisters, 
living  under  a  lowly  roof,  within  narrow  walls,  sur- 
rounded by  poverty  and  privation,  but  all  united 
in  one  common  love,  because  in  the  midst  of  them  was 
dwelling  their  beloved  mother  Zion,  wrinkled,  aged, 
and  yet  eternally  youthful.  They  were  happy  in  their 
unity,  they  were  happy  in  their  affection. 

Then  came  emancipation,  and  one  after  the 
other  the  sisters  began  to  leave  their  home  to  join 
the  larger  life  of  the  world  around.  And  the  married 
daughters  sometimes  forgot  their  old  mother  and  the 
sisters  they  had  left  behind.  They  wculd  send  an  oc- 
casional contribution  towards  the  upkeep  of  the  old 
home,  but,  absorbed  by  their  new  duties  and  fascinated 
by  new  attractions,  they  would  care  but  little  for 
what  was  going  on  within  its  walls. 

But  now  the  event  of  events  has  arrived.  Our 
biggest  sister,  the  one  that  has  remained  longest  in  the 
house,  has  come  into  her  own.  She  has  been  called 
out  to  go  and  to  share  the  new  and  larger  life  of  the 
great  Russian  people.  And  all  the  sisters,  gathered 
once  more  in  the  family  circle,  rejoice  in  her  joy, 
and  are  happy  in  her  happiness.  But  their  happiness, 
like  all  happiness,  is  tinged  with  sadness.  They 
think  of  what  happened  to  themselves,  and  they  come 
and   say   to   her:   "Sister,   dear,   you   have   been    the 


478  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

mainstay  of  our  family  longer  than  any  of  us.  You 
have  been  stauncher  in  your  loyalty  to  our  dear 
old  mother  than  any  of  us.  Now  a  happy  life  is  be- 
fore you,  and  we  wish  you  happiness  with  a  full  heart. 
But,  pray,  do  not  forget  our  old  home,  and  the  sisterly 
bond  that  united  us.  And,  above  all,  do  not  forget 
our  old  mother,  whom  we  all  love  and  who  loves  us 
all  with  a  great  and  abiding  love." 

And  Russian  Jewry,  the  big  sister,  who  has  been 
the  central  pillar  of  the  House  of  Israel  for  the  last 
five  hundred  years,  who  has  kept  fresh  the  love  of 
Zion  in  the  heart  of  the  Jewish  people,  half  laughing, 
half  crying,  raises  her  hand  and  solemnly  repeats  the 
oath  of  the  psalmist: 

Im  eshkakhech,  Yerushalaim,  tishkakh  yeminil 
"If  I  forget  thee,  O  Jerusalem, 

Let  my  right  hand  forget  her  cunning! 
Let  my  tongue  cleave  to  the  roof  of  my  mouth 
If  I  remember  thee  not!" 

Im  lo  a' ale  eth-  Yerushalaim  al  rosh  simhathi. 
"If  I  set  not  Jerusalem  above  my  chiefest  joy! 


XXVII 
PALESTINE  AND  THE  WORLD  WAR* 

JUDAH  HALEVI,  the  great  Jewish  thinker  and 
poet,  is  responsible  for  the  saying  that  "Israel  is 
the  heart  among  the  nations,"  because,  owing  to  the 
peculiar  position  which  the  Jews  occupy  in  the  world, 
they  react  with  double  intensity  both  upon  the  pain- 
ful and  the  pleasurable  sensations  of  life.  The  soul- 
stirring  experiences  through  which  we  have  passed 
together  with  our  fellow-citizens,  since  we  met  in 
annual  convention  last  year,  have  affected  us  Jews  in 
a  double  manner.  They  have  affected  us  as  part  and 
parcel  of  the  nations  in  whose  midst  we  li\*e  and  in 
whose  ranks  we  fight;  and  they  have  affected  us  as 
members  of  the  scattered  Jewish  people  throughout 
the  world.  A  year  ago  when  we  were  assembled  at 
the  Eighth  Annual  Convention  of  the  Kehillah  we 
had  occasion  to  rejoice  in  the  wonderful  change  that 
had  taken  place  in  Russia.  We  all  hoped  that  the 
sun  of  liberty  which  had  emerged  out  of  the  darkness 
of  Czardom  would  bring  righteousness  and  healing  in 
her  wings  to  all  the  hapless  inhabitants  of  the  Russian 
Empire  and  to  the  doubly  hapless  Russian  Jews. 
Today  that  sun  seems  to  be  swallowed  up  by  heavy 
and  stormy  clouds,  and  all  we  can  do  is  to  hope  for 
the  best. 


*Address  delivered  at  the  Ninth  Annual  Convention  of  the 
Jewish  Community  (Kehillah)  of  New  York,  June  2,  1918,  intro- 
ducing a  resolution  of  thanks  to  the  British  Government  for  the 
Balfour  Declaration. 


480  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

But  it  would  seem  as  if  Providence  had  wished  to 
compensate  us  for  our  disappointment  in  Russia  by 
raising  a  new  hope  for  us  in  an  entirely  different  part 
of  the  globe — in  the  land  of  our  fathers.  The 
second  day  of  November  of  the  year  1917  will  stand 
forth  as  a  lofty  landmark  in  the  history  of  the  Jewish 
people.  For  it  was  on  that  day  that  the  Government 
of  Great  Britain,  subsequently  joined  by  the  govern- 
ments of  other  great  powers,  publicly  declared  that 
they  "view  with  favor  the  establishment  in  Palestine 
of  a  national  home  for  the  Jewish  people,  and  will  use 
their  best  endeavors  to  facilitate  the  achievement  of 
this  object."  It  is  for  the  first  time  in  nearly  two 
thousand  years,  ever  since  the  Jews  weie  driven  from 
their  home  by  the  Roman  legions,  that  a  great  Gov- 
ernment has  recognized  the  right  of  the  Jewish  people 
to  be  a*  people,  and  the  claim  of  Palestine  to  be 
Eretz  Yisroel,  the  Land  of  Israel. 

Our  gratitude  for  this  noble  act  is  deepened  by  the 
conviction  that  the  British  Declaration  was  not  the 
outcome  of  political  expediency,  nor  the  generous 
impulse  of  a  successful  conqueror,  but  a  manifestation 
of  that  large-hearted  policy  which  modern  England 
has  always  pursued  toward  our  people.  The  same 
England  which  has  made  its  Jewish  citizens  feel  so 
thoroughly  at  home  has  also  shown  a  fine  understand- 
ing of  the  historic  yearning  of  the  Jewish  people  to 
have  a  home  of  its  own.  It  was  the  great  English 
poet  who  sang  so  pathetically  of  the  homelessness  of 
the  Jew,  in  those  famous  words: 

The  wild  dove  hath  her  nest, 

The  fox  his  cave, 
Mankind  their  country, 

Israel  the  grave. 


PALESTINE  AND  THE  WORLD  WAR  481 

And  it  was  the  English  Government  which  has  always 
lent  a  willing  and  attentive  ear  to  the  proposals  that 
bade  fair  to  put  an  end  to  that  homelessness.  It  is 
not  accidental  that  out  of  England  came  forth  that 
great  Jew  and  philanthropist  Moses  Montefiore,  who 
made  the  first  attempt  at  the  restoration  of  Palestine. 
Nor  is  it  accidental  that  it  was  an  Englishman,  Sir 
Lawrence  Oliphant,  who,  with  the  approval  and  en- 
couragement of  the  leading  English  statesmen  of  the 
time,  made  another  effort  in  1879  to  secure  Palestine 
for  the  Jews.  Those  of  us  who  are  associated  with  the 
Zionist  movement  can  never  forget  that  it  was  the 
British  Government  which  was  the  first  to  recognize  the 
validity  and  earnestness  of  the  Zionist  aspirations,  and 
on  two  occasions  made  concrete  endeavors  to  realize 
them.  It  was  in  1903  that  Great  Britain  expressed 
its  willingness  to  set  aside  the  region  of  Al-Arish  on 
the  Palestine-Egyptian  frontier  for  a  Jewish  settle- 
ment, and  when  that  plan  proved  economically  un- 
feasible the  British  Government  made  another 
offer,  placing  a  portion  of  its  East  African  Protectorate 
at  the  disposal  of  the  Jews.  At  the  Seventh  Zionist 
Congress  in  1905,  the  Zionists,  though  gratefully 
appreciating  the  noble  intentions  of  Great  Britain, 
declined  this  proposal  which  implied  disloyalty  to 
their  ancient  homeland.  And  Great  Britain,  instead 
of  being  discouraged  or  displeased  by  this  refusal, 
entered  so  intimately  into  the  most  delicate  sentiments 
of  the  Jews  that  it  has  requited  their  loyalty  by  now 
offering  them  the  land  of  their  desire.  Great  Britain 
has  shown  herself  to  be  truly  Great — not  merely  Big 
Britain  because  it  happens  to  control  one-fifth  of  the 


482  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

globe,  but  rather  Great  Britain — because  true  greatness 
consists  in  the  mercy  of  the  strong  for  the  weak,  and 
in  the  recognition  of  the  claims  of  humanity. 

However,  the  most  effective  way  to  express  grati- 
tude is  not  by  words  but  by  deeds.  If  we  truly  wish 
to  show  our  appreciation  of  the  opportunity  which 
England  has  granted  to  us,  then  the  only  way  to  do 
it  is  by  taking  full  and  unrestricted  advantage  of  that 
opportunity,  and  by  bending  all  our  efforts  to  the  end 
that  the  promise  made  to  us  may  soon  become 
fulfillment.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  Jews  all  over  the 
world  to  react  directly  and  concretely  upon  the  offer 
of  the  British  Government,  and  to  help  carry  it  into 
effect. 

And  on  no  other  section  of  the  Jewish  people  does 
this  obligation  rest  so  fully  and  so  sacredly  as  it  does 
upon  the  Jews  of  America.  For,  as  a  result  of  the 
great  World  War,  and  even  more  directly  as  a  result 
of  the  events  of  last  year  which  have  brought 
about  the  disintegration  of  the  House  of  Israel  in 
Russia,  the  Jewry  of  America  has  suddenly  become 
the  leading  Jewry  of  the  world.  We  are  now  fiist  by 
the  sheer  weight  of  numbers,  and  we  are  certainly 
first  by  dint  of  our  resources.  We  are  now  the 
largest  Jewry  in  the  world,  and  this  position  places 
great  obligations  upon  us:  obligations  towards  our- 
selves in  this  country  and  obligations  towards  our 
fellow-Jews  in  other  lands.  It  is  our  first  duty  as 
Jews  and  as  Americans  to  establish  our  life  in  America 
on  such  foundations  that  it  may  fully  harmonize  with 
the  environment  in  which  we  live,  and  with  the  tra- 
ditions of  the  Jewish  people  of  which  we  are  a  part. 


PALESTINE  AND  THE  WORLD  WAR  483 

It  is  our  duty  to  see  to  it  that  the  Jewish  community 
of  our  own  city,  which  harbors  one-half  of  American 
Israel  and  one-tenth  of  universal  Israel,  shall  become 
a  fountain-head  of  strength  and  inspiration  to  our- 
selves and  our  neighbors. 

But  our  next  duty  is  to  our  brethren  in  other  lands. 
The  Jews  of  America  must  realize  that  the  entire 
Jewish  world  looks  to  us  for  help  and  encouragement; 
that  American  Jewry  is  looked  upon  as  the  big  brother 
of  scattered  Israel.  Whether  it  be  in  Poland  or 
Lithuania,  in  Greece  or  in  Turkey,  in  far-off  Persia 
or  Japan,  our  sympathy  and  support  are  the  only 
ray  of  hope  in  the  darkness  which  has  engulfed  our 
brethren.  But  of  all  these  countries  Palestine  has  a 
specially  tender  spot  in  our  hearts,  because,  in  appeal- 
ing to  our  sentiments  of  pity,  it  stirs  at  the  same  time 
the  deeply  imbedded  lofty  associations  of  our  history. 

The  history  of  Palestine  is,  indeed,  not  a  historv  but 
a  romance.  It  is  the  love  story  of  the  Jewish  people 
and  of  its  undying  devotion  to  its  ancient  homeland 
from  which  it  has  been  separated  for  well-nigh  two 
thousand  years.  Today  we  witness  the  consummation 
of  that  romance,  which,  like  all  mediaeval  romances, 
is  celebrated  amidst  the  clash  of  arms.  Palestine  is 
designated  in  the  Bible  by  a  characteristic  romantic 
term:  it  is  caMedEretz  Ha-Tzeri,  "the  Land  of  Beauty," 
and  those  who  have  had  the  privilege  of  seeing 
Palestine  with  their  eyes  testify  that  this  description 
is  true  to  the  facts.  Palestine  is  indeed  a  Beauty,  a 
Sleeping  Beauty. 

I  hope  you  remember  the  story  of  Sleeping  Beauty. 
It  is  the  story  of  a  beautiful  princess  who  was  cursed 


484  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

by  an  ugly  witch  and  cast  into  a  sleep  which  lasted 
for  a  hundred  years.  The  whole  castle  in  which 
the  princess  lived  went  to  sleep  with  her,  and  thorns 
and  thistles  shut  the  castle  from  the  eyes  of  the  world. 
But  after  a  hundred  years  there  came  the  prince  who, 
in  his  search  for  the  princess,  found  his  way  to  the 
castle,  and,  cutting  a  road  through  the  briars  and 
brambles  of  a  century's  growth,  finally  reached  the 
chamber  in  which  the  princess  lay — so  beautiful, 
but  alas!  so  lifeless.  However,  no  sooner  had  the 
prince  pressed  his  lips  upon  the  princess  than  Sleeping 
Beauty  awoke.  She  opened  her  eyes,  and,  stretching 
her  limbs,  jumped  down  from  her  couch,  full  of  youth 
and  vigor,  and  the  castle  and  its  inmates  rose  to  new 
life  with  her. 

The  Princess  is  Palestine.  The  Prince  is  Israel.  I 
do  not  know  whether  the  role  of  England  is  that  of 
the  Schadchen  or  Mechuton — the  marriage-broker  or 
father-in-law.  But  what  we  do  know  is  that  the 
wedding  between  the  Princess  and  the  Prince  is  going 
to  take  place  shortly,  and  that  it  is  the  duty  of  all  of  us 
who  love  that  couple  and  wish  to  see  them  happy  to 
provide  the  wedding  expenses.  Those  of  us  who  have 
beer  reared  in  old-fashioned  Jewish  tradition  know  that 
the  precept  of  Hakhnassath  Kallah,  enjoining  upon 
us  to  provide  a  home  for  the  bride,  is  classed  among  the 
fundamental  duties  of  our  religion,  and  carries  a 
special  appeal  to  every  Jewish  heart.  Only  a  little 
while  ago  the  Zionists,  prompted  by  similar  motives, 
issued  an  appeal  for  the  Restoration  Fund,  the  first 
installment  of  which,  amounting  to  $1,000,000,  is  now 
being  rapidly  collected.  But  we  are  only  at  the 
beginning  of  our  endeavors.     American  Jews,  together 


PALESTINE  AND  THE  WORLD  WAR  485 

with  the  Jews  all  over  the  world,  will  have  to  continue 
their  generosity  until  the  dream  which  our  fathers 
dreamt  when  they  sat  weeping  by  the  rivers  of  Baby- 
lon has  become  a  reality,  and  until  the  union  of  the 
People  of  Israel  with  the  Land  of  Israel  has  again 
been  consummated.  If  the  history  of  Palestine  be 
like  a  fairy  tale,  then  it  is  for  us  to  convert  this  fairy 
tale  into  a  fact,  for,  as  Dr.  Herzl  said  at  the  beginning 
of  the  Zionist  movement:  "If  you  so  desire,  then 
it  is  no  fairy  tale." 

However,  when  we  speak  of  the  restoration  of 
Palestine  as  the  consummation  of  our  Jewish  aspira- 
tions we  are  not  actuated  by  narrow,  Jewish  self- 
interest.  It  is  a  paradoxical  fact,  and  nevertheless 
a  true  fact,  that  Palestine,  which  has  the  strongest 
appeal  to  the  specific  national  sentiments  of  the  Jew, 
is  at  the  same  time  the  most,  or  rather  the  only, 
international  land  on  the  surface  of  the  earth.  And 
it  is  so,  not  because  of  its  size,  for  it  is  one  of  the 
smallest  of  countries;  nor  because  of  its  material 
resources,  which  it  possesses  to  a  very  limited  degree; 
but  because  it  is  the  fountain-head  of  those  great 
ideals  towards  which  humanity  is  stiuggling  today,  in 
the  midst  of  rivers  of  blood.  We  Jews  love  Palestine, 
not  because  it  tickles  our  political  ambitions,  or 
allures  us  with  material  prospects,  but  because  we 
fervently  hope  that  those  great  ideals  which  weie 
proclaimed  in  ancient  Palestine  thousands  of  years 
ago  may  once  more  be  realized  in  modern  Palestine, 
not  only  for  the  benefit  of  the  Jews,  but  as  an  object- 
lesson  for  the  whole  of  humanity.  "For  out  of  Zion 
shall  come  forth  the  Law,  and  the  word  of  the  Lord 
out  of  Jerusalem." 


486  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

The  British  Declaration  offering  Palestine  to  a 
people  whose  claims  are  not  based  on  might  but  on 
right,  is  in  itself  an  earnest  of  the  approaching  tri- 
umph of  those  great  ideals.  For  if  this  war  means 
anything  it  is  the  conviction  that  right  stands  above 
might;  that  the  things  of  the  spirit  are  above  brutal, 
physical  power.  It  is  the  vindication  of  justice  and 
righteousness;  the  vindication,  therefore,  of  the 
smaller  nationalities,  and  the  securing  of  life,  liberty, 
and  the  pursuit  of  happiness  not  only  to  the  indi- 
viduals, but  also  to  the  groups  of  the  human  race.  It 
is  precisely  tor  this  purpose  that  our  own  country  has 
entered  the  struggle.  America  has  nothing  to  gain 
by  way  of  political  or  material  aggrandizement  from 
her  participation  in  this  war.  The  country  which  has 
been  slandered  as  the  land  of  the  almighty  Dollar, 
and  praised  as  the  country  of  unlimited  opportunities 
is  willing  to  stake  the  lives  of  her  children  and  the 
material  prosperity  with  which  she  has  been  blessed 
for  no  other  purpose  than  that  the  ideals  first  pro- 
claimed in  ancient  Palestine  may  prove  victorious. 

This  ideal  connection  between  Palestine  and  the 
World  War  has  never  been  more  loftily  conceived 
and  more  forcibly  expressed  than  it  was  by  the 
Prophet  Isaiah  2,700  years  ago,  in  those  famous 
chapters  (x-xi),  in  which,  on  the  one  hand,  he 
describes  the  initial  conquests  and  ultimate  defeat  of 
mighty  Assyria,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  pictures  the 
rise  and  growth  of  rejuvenated  Palestine. 

Assyria,  heir  to  an  ancient  civilization  which  we 
still  admire  on  her  monuments,  and  conspicuous  by 
her  achievements  in  art,  literature  and  science,  was 
seized  by  the  desire  for  world  conquest.     She  marches 


PALESTINE  AND  THE  WORLD  WAR  487 

through  the  fields  of  Western  Asia  and  she  says — I  am 
now  quoting  literally  the  words  of  the  Prophet: 
"By  the  strength  of  my  hand  I  have  done  it, 

And  by  my  wisdom,  for  I  am  prudent; 

In  that  I  have  removed  the  boundaries  of  the  peoples, 

And  I  have  robbed  their  treasures, 

And  I  have  brought  down  like  a  mighty  one  the  inhabitants; 

And  my  hand  hath  found  as  a  nest  the  riches  of  the  peoples; 

And  as  one  gathereth  eggs  that  are  forsaken, 

Have  I  gathered  all  the  earth." 

You  can  hear  the  tramping  tread  of  her  marching 
armies,  wnich  are  coming  nearer  and  nearer: 
"He  is  come  to  Aiath, 
He  is  passed  through  Migron; 
At  Michmas  he  layeth  up  his  baggage; 
They  are  gone  over  the  pass; 
They  have  taken  up  their  lodging  at  Geba; 
Ramah  trembleth; 
Gibeath-shaul  is  fled. 

Cry  thou  with  a  shrill  voice,  O  daughter  of  Gallim! 
Hearken  O  Laish!     O  thou  poor  Anatoth! 
Madmenah  is  in  mad  flight; 
The  inhabitants  of  Gebim  flee  to  cover. 
This  very  day  shall  he  halt  at  Nob, 

Shaking  his  hand  at  the  mount  of  the  daughter  of  Zion, 
The  hill  of  Jerusalem." 

But  at  the  very  height  of  her  triumph,  Assyria  is 
struck  down  by  a  deadly  blow: 

"Behold,  the  Lord,  the  Lord  of  hosts, 
Shall  lop  the  boughs  with  terror; 
And  the  high  ones  of  stature  shall  be  hewn  down, 
And  the  lofty  shall  be  laid  low, 

And  he  shall  cut  down  the  thickets  of  the  forest  with  iron 
And  Lebanon  shall  fall  by  a  mighty  one." 

But  out  of  the  crashing  noise  of  the  falling  cedars  of 
Lebanon  there  suddenly  breaks  upon  our  ear  a 
soft  and  tender  voice,  even  as  in  a  symphony  orches- 


488  PAST  AND  PRESENT 

tra  the  sweet  sound  of  a  flute  is  sometimes  heard  float- 
ing above  the  crash  of  cymbals: 

"And  there  shall  come  forth  a  shoot  out  of  the  stock  of  Jesse, 
And  a  twig  shall  grow  forth  out  of  its  roots, 

— a   tender  sapling,   instead   of   the  haughty  cedar. 
And  this  "twig"  will  not  be  endowed  with  brutal 
force  or  military  efficiency: 

"And  the  spirit  of  the  Lord  shall  rest  upon  him, 
The  spirit  of  wisdom  and  understanding, 
The  spirit  of  counsel  and  courage, 
The  spirit  of  knowledge  and  of  the  fear  of  the  Lord." 

And  his  symbol  shall  not  be  the  mailed  fist  nor  the 
peaked  helmet: 

"And  righteousness  shall  be  the  girdle  of  his  loins, 
And  faithfulness  the  girdle  of  his  reins." 

And  human  beings  shall  no  more  tear  one  another 
like  wild  beasts: 

"And  the  wolf  shall  dwell  with  the  lamb, 
And  the  leopard  shall  lie  down  with  the  kid; 
And  the  calf  and  the  young  lion  and  the  fading  together; 
And  a  little  child  shall  lead  them.  .   .   . 
They  shall  not  hurt  nor  destroy 
In  all  My  holy  mountain; 

For  the  earth  shall  be  full  of  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord, 
As  the  waters  cover  the  sea." 

Palestine  is  the  land  of  Promise  not  only  to  the 
Jew  but  to  the  entire  world — the  promise  of  a  higher 
and  better  social  order. 

Upon  the  gates  of  the  Third  Jewish  Commonwealth 
will  be  inscribed  the  same  prophetic  words  which 
greeted  the  establishment  of  the  Second  Jewish 
Commonwealth : 

"Not  by  might,  nor  by  power, 
But  by  My  spirit,  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts." 


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